Return of the Thundergod
by NadinLuciferHawk
Summary: A joke taken seriously leads to a twist. An old enemy returns and suddenly things are not as they used to be.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Comment**

Yay for another piece of Fiction. My brain is really bemusing sometimes. Have Fun Reading and Review a lot. Pairings are not included, you can imagine whatever you want.  
**  
Disclaimer:**

I do not own One Piece. Oda does.

Beware possible Grammar mistakes. I tried to fix them, but there may still some hiding.

* * *

**Chapter 1**

The odour of exquisite tea and fine whiskey mingled with the heavy salty evening sea breeze drafting in through the open windows. Commander-in-Chief Kong took a deep breath of this fine composition and took a careful sip from his tea. He rarely got out of his underground office, but every time he smelled this delicate air made him wonder whether he should simply move his office here.

Kong put the tea cup down and turned to the two big men sitting on the same low coffee table with him. The one sitting left wore a red floral-pattered shirt, the Fleet Admiral Sakazuki, more commonly known amongst his men as Akainu. The other one wore a ridiculous yellow pinstripe suit and glasses. He was Admiral Borsalino, also known as Kizaru.

"As much as I love to drink tea and whiskey this evening," Kong began, "I'd like to come to the business part of my visit."

"Of course." Sakazuki said and took another sip. "We need a replacement for Admiral Aokiji."

"And while we're on it, we can also look for a replacement for Vice Admiral Garp" Borsalino added bored.

"Hmm… to replace Aokiji will not be as complicated like replacing Garp… he was one hell of Marine"

"Yeah. But he was the guardian of that devil's spawn Portgas D. Ace and he is the grandfather of that chaotic Rubber brat Monkey D. Luffy." Sakazuki snorted. "Well, at least that flame boy is dead now."

"What about Monkey D. Luffy?" Kong asked, "The two years he promised to take off will be over in a few days."

"Don't tell me you're afraid of that rubber brat."

Kong chuckled. "Normally I wouldn't… but after what he pulled in Impel Down and Marineford… I'm not so sure about it anymore." He sighed and took another sip from his tea. "That boy was dangerous two years ago. Who knows what he will do next?"

"I'll send Sentomaru to welcome him. Him and his band of destructive idiots."

"Hmhm… do that." Kong said. "Now, let's see, who is there to promote?"

While the two of them were discussing about what to do next, Borsalino leaned back in boredom. He hated these meetings, but even more did he hate the meetings with the Shichibukai. No matter. At least he could lean back and relax here. And perhaps catch a few Zs while at it.

"Hey Kizaru!" Sakazuki called over to him, "Resting your eyes again?"

"Nah, Akainu. Just bored…"

Kong laughed. "Well, if you are bored why not try to be productive once in a while? I swear you have more paper work piling on your table than Aokiji ever had! And that was one lazy guy! Akainu here has never any paper work left on his desk – take an example on him."

Borsalino crossed his arms behind his head and said: "Yeah. Because he _burns_ it."

Kong looked in a mixture of surprise and amusement at the Fleet Admiral while he scowled at his colleague. "Know what, Kizaru?" he began annoyed, "Why don't you simply go and find out whether the moon is really made out of cheese?"

Borsalino sniffed, got to his feet and said: "Sure. There's nothing of interest here anyways… could try that as well…"

"Wait… you seriously want to… that was a joke you four-eyed idiot!" Sakazuki shouted. But he was a few moments too late and the other Admiral disappeared on a ray of light.

Sakazuki blinked at the spot where his colleague had been only a few moments ago. Kong chuckled. "He's a dumbass, isn't he?"

"Yeah." Sakazuki huffed out, "Dumb as a head of cabbage, but at least he's useful. Anyways. Where were we?"

-oo0oo-

Borsalino's special ability made it possible for him to travel to the moon in less than three seconds. He was a Logia-User after all, and he controlled a very powerful element: Light. And light was the fastest thing in this universe.

Needless to say that light did not to breath, making it possible for him to walk around on the moon's surface.

But what he saw made him disappointed. "The moon does not consist out of cheese!" he finally said. Bowing down he scooped up a handful of grey dust. "Only dust, dirt and rocks."

Annoyed Borsalino picked up a rock, looked at it with an indifferent face and hurled it far away. There, where it hit the ground, was a small crater left and dust whirled up around point zero.

The tall man with the ridiculous yellow pinstripe suit and the Marine coat draped over his broad shoulders wanted to go back and finish his tea.

But then something happened.

In the moment he turned around, the Marine Admiral became aware of another person that suddenly had appeared behind him.

The newcomer looked somewhat like an… exotic dancer… or something. He was tall and muscular with bare upper body, albeit only about two thirds of the admiral's own size. Bright blonde hair was covered by a simple white bandana and blue eyes glared up to him in anger. He wore wide fluffy orange pants with black pattern, a flowing blue sash above that and a darker blue cloth belt, and his pants looked as if they would fall off any moment but somehow didn't. Golden rings were around his arms, ankles and even toes. But the weirdest things about him were the insanely long earlobes with the heavy diamond-shaped earrings – they reached down to his chest – and the ring with four tomoe-pattered drums sticking out of his shoulders. A golden staff rested in his hand.

The blonde man narrowed his eyes into an angered squint. "I do not care who you are and how you came here, but you are trespassing upon my territory… God's territory!"

Borsalino patted his hands off on his suit and said: "God's territory?" He chuckled, "So you are God? And you are ruling about what? A chunk of dirt and rock?"

That took the smaller man on the wrong foot. With an enraged yell he shouted: "This is _my_ Fairy Vearth! And you did not only dare to set foot on it, you also offended me!" Much to Kizaru's surprise lightning began to dance around the other. So he was a Logia-User as well… "You offended God with your impudence. Now face the consequences!"

In the next moment a giant lightning beam shot down and crushed directly into the intolerable yellow-clothed man.

When the light died down only sparks remained behind. The self-proclaimed god scowled at that. Huffing out, he turned around and growled: "Bastard. He had it coming…"

Suddenly his back stiffened when his senses cried out to him. All this time up here dulled his Mantra.

"My my," the bigger man said again. The Thunder God turned back with a shocked face expression. Borsalino just reformed his body out of the sparks that had remained behind. "You are a pretty fierce 'god', my friend"

To say the god was surprised would have been an understatement. But he then caught himself again and hissed: "So you want to fight me, do you?"

Borsalino had recovered entirely again. "I must say, I'm surprised. That actually tingled." Glaring down to the exotic-looking man he said: "However, you made a big mistake. Don't you know with whom _you_ are dealing?"

The smaller man went into a battle pose. Lightning danced around him when he answered: "I do not care. This is my land, and you are the intruder."

"I am also an Admiral of the World Government. And attacking me was like declaring war on the Government itself…"

"God stands above all governments!"

"If that's what you think… then come at me."

-oo0oo-

Many, many miles underneath them was a red-haired woman. She just packed up her belongings. "Wow." she thought. "Tomorrow I'll move back to where I saw my friends the last time… Two years is a damn long time."

The woman – Cat Burglar Nami – stepped away from her bed and to the window. Weatharia was a beautiful land, and she had learned so much here… still it was not home. "Home is where your family is." her mother had told her years ago. And her family were aboard that ship and waiting for her.

Suddenly Nami was startled out of her thoughts. She blinked and squinted her eyes, looking closer to the bright disk that hung silently in the heavens.

Then there was another strange flash. Nami jumped back and grabbed a telescope. With practiced hands she adjusted the device and looked through it.

"Nami? Oh, Nami?" a thin voice said from behind her. Nami did not turn to look around when an old man with long beard and a wizard outfit stepped into her room. He was her mentor over the last few years. He looked at her for a moment before chuckling: "A beautiful night to watch the stars, isn't it?"

"Haredas. Come here and tell me what you see." Nami said. The old man obeyed and came over, waiting for the girl to hand him the telescope. He then looked into it. "What do you think that is?"

"Hum hum." Haredas said eventually, "That looks like a cosmic disturbance."

"Really?" Nami asked with her eyebrow raised, "Looks like Light and Lightning are fighting against each other."

The old man shrugged his shoulders. "Cosmic disturbance. Like I said." He then waddled out of the room again and said: "Tomorrow we'll set course to the Sabaody Archipelago. You should prepare."

Nami nodded absent-minded. Light and Lightning… why did she found that so familiar?

The young pirate went back to the telescope, adjusted it again and looked through. The blue flashes of lightning seemed to become less frequent now.

She shook her head and straightened up. "Seems to be a cosmic disturbance after all… or maybe it's a reflection of something." Huffing out she went over to her bed, settled down and grumbled: "Whatever. This has better nothing to do with our idiot captain."


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

"…What about Smoker?" Sakazuki asked anew.

Kong shook his head. "Smoker's not the guy for that post. He wanted to go to the G5, and honestly I think he fits better there than here." Putting down his cup of tea he added: "Also the guy is an uncomfortable person. He's thinking too much about what true justice is, and he's questioning too much."

"Not to mention he likes to follow his own head and not someone else's…" Sakazuki closed. Nodding he summed up: "You are right. Smoker would be a bad choice for this post."

"By the way… where's Kizaru now?"

Akainu chuckled. "Possibly stuck in a hole on the moon… wouldn't surprise me if he is actually looking for…"

Suddenly there was a flash of light and the missed Admiral stood in the room again.

But something was off about him. His glasses were broken and his clothes torn, the cloak was missing entirely. There were injuries everywhere on his body.

Huffing out, he dropped a body onto the coffee table, the body of a strange man wearing odd clothes and who had a weird hoop sticking out of his back. He was in a similar state like the Admiral.

"Kizaru? What's the meaning…" Sakazuki began, but was cut off when the other tall man dropped a grey rock into his lap.

"To answer your question: No, the moon is not made of cheese." Borsalino said. "Now excuse me, I'm going to see the doc."

"What the fuck happened up there?" the commander-in-chief yelled, "And who's that clown?"

Borsalino shrugged, but only with one shoulder. The other was smashed, making the other two wonder what in the seven hells was powerful enough to attack _and_ injure a Logia User of Kizaru's level. "He's a Logia User I met on the moon. The guy babbled something about 'Fery Verth' or something, and about being a god before attacking me with lightning."

"Attacked you?"

"Head on." Borsalino stemmed his good hand into his hip and carried on: "Of course, I had to punish him for attacking an Admiral of the World Government – but he fought back. Guess I'm lucky I was bigger than him and thus I could stave off a little more damage than he could."

Kong looked from the fainted man on the table to the large, beaten Admiral and back to the other guy. "And why did you bring him here and did not kill him right away?"

"Oh, I did." Borsalino threw in. "But he simply restarted his heart with lightning, got back to his feet and attacked again. And I figured you want to have him executed in public for daring to attack the World Government." The others stared at him with a blank stare.

"Yeah, that would be good" Sakazuki eventually said, "Ever since Portgas' execution…"

Kong did not wait for Akainu to continue, went to the door, stuck his head out and told a Marine: "Go and get a pair of Kairoseki-Handcuffs. And get a few soldiers here."

"Sir! Yes, sir!" the Marine saluted and started down the hall. He did not question about the odd order like he was taught to.

Kong closed the door again and turned back to the other two. Borsalino had sat down with a huff of exhaustion. Sakazuki stood besides him and looked down to the oddly clothed but not very imposing man on the table. Kong was somewhat glad that he asked for Seastone Handcuffs, because if that man was really the one that injured Kizaru to this extend, he was a danger that needed to be confined as soon as possible.

And hopefully before he woke up.

Alas! His pious hope did not come true. As soon as that thought had left his head, the strange man shifted and coughed. Both Admirals jumped to their feet immediately, and the man became aware of them at once.

Using the Logia-powers Kizaru had spoken of he warped himself across the room in a lightning bolt where he somehow managed to get back to his feet, an insanely enraged expression etched into his face.

Wiping some blood off his mouth he shouted: "How could you dare to commit such an outrage? Where the hell did you bring me?!"

"Marine Headquarters – formerly known as the G1 Marine Basis in the New World." Borsalino casually informed him. "This is where you will be imprisoned for your crime until the day you're getting your just deserts"

"Crime?!" the self-proclaimed god shouted irritated, "It was you who committed a crime against God in the first place!"

Borsalino ignored the literally sparking man and turned to his colleagues. "See? I told you he's nuts."

At that the man screamed out enraged and sent out a lightning towards them, but thanks to their Haki all three of them evaded.

"Hmm… he's pretty spirited for someone that just fought against you, Kizaru." Sakazuki remarked. In the same moment the man was suddenly in front of him, startling the Fleet Admiral – as good as his Haki was, he could not deal with lightning-fast attacks. Somehow the smaller man had managed to hold on to his golden staff the entire time and used it to attack the larger Admiral – however his attack was abruptly stopped when Sakazuki turned into semi-liquid fire before his very eyes. The god must've never seen something like that judging from his shocked stare.

"That was a poor try." Akainu hissed and grabbed the staff, melting it in an instance. The smaller 'god' was forced to let go to prevent getting burnt. With an unreadable face he stared at the golden puddle that had once been his fighting staff.

Looking up he met the other's eyes and he hissed: "Who are you?"

"Fleet Admiral Akainu" the taller man exclaimed. "I have eaten the Magu Magu no Mi and am now a Magma human!" Pointing with a burning hand at the smaller man he added: "And you have dared to cross the leading party of the World Government! For this you will face absolute justice!"

"Don't worry, though." Borsalino threw in when he too began to activate his Logia powers. "We won't kill you. Not now."

The smaller god took a tentative step back and gulped unnoticed. At least now he knew what that Blue sea brat meant when he said that were many people here who could deal with him. But no matter. They dared to affront him, and thus they would get a taste of God's judgement.

-0-

Sometimes Coby hated his job as Marine. Oh, he always wanted to be a Marine, but ever since his mentor Garp resigned, he and his friend Helmeppo were stuck here in the Marine Headquarters and left to do errand jobs.

"I guess that has something to do with our involvement in the Marineford War." Helmeppo grumbled.

Coby shrugged. "Let's just make our job then; we'll advance sooner or later."

"Yeah, but why were we supposed to bring Kairoseki Handcuffs to Akainu's office?"

"Dunno… but it has surely something to do with that armed squad over there…"

Suddenly the whole building shook like mad and the Marines stumbled against the walls or onto the floor. Coby felt his Haki screaming out to him and managed to drag his friend to the side before a massive blue lightning crushed through the ceiling and right through the floor. Flashes were still dancing around the hole when a strange half-naked man suddenly jumped through the makeshift escape. When he dashed past the two youngsters they noticed that he was injured and panting, but nevertheless he created a bolt of lightning and threw it behind himself – actually hitting Fleet Admiral Akainu square into his chest when he jumped down.

Akainu was thrown against his men, but jumped back to his feet and shouted: "You are getting weaker! This attack was only a joke!" But he did sustain a fan-shaped burn visible through his destroyed clothes.

"What in the seven seas is powerful enough to actually injure Fleet Admiral Akainu?!" Helmeppo cried out in bewilderment.

"Lightning!" Coby answered quickly, "Lightning is hotter than magma… down!" Both boys flopped flat onto their stomachs when another lightning bolt shot over them. Only this time the Fleet Admiral was prepared and he created a wall of magma between himself and the attack.

The retreating god knew that he was trapped inside the building. He had to get out to make his escape. Luckily he saw a window right in front of him. With an enraged yell he sent out another bolt which smashed the window and the wall away. He jumped, turned into lightning and shot across the sky.

Only he did not count in his weakened state. Right now his Mantra was very weak and he was unable to compute the situation well. Out of the corner of his eye he noticed something bright coming his way. And before he could react a beam of light crushed into the blue lightning, forcing it again back towards the headquarter building.

Another wall was smashed into rubble when two now distinctive human shapes crushed into it, making several Marines jump up afraid. Flashes of light and electricity still danced around everywhere when the by now badly beaten thunder god forced himself up again. Time was running, and even with his tremendous powers he could not last very long now.

Despite his massive superiority complex and his giant ego, he realised that he could not win against the collected forces of this World Government. In order to extract his revenge and punish them for their sacrilege, he would have to escape to a secure place and regenerate first.

But for that he would have to get up first.

Something warm and wet made its way through his throat and before he knew he spat up a large amount of blood. Blood. He could not remember the last time he had been beaten so badly that he was vomiting blood.

"Our little dispute seems to be close to its end." that big man with the ridiculous yellow pinstripe suit said. He was in a similar sorry state as his opponent, but thanks to his size he was able to endure a lot more.

The thunder god leashed out again, sending out a desperate and weak bolt of lightning and managed to trip the taller man. In the same moment he used his natural agility and jumped back to his feet… but a condensed beam of light hit him in his flank and sent him against the floor again. And this time he did not get up.

Borsalino wiped some blood off his head when Sakazuki, Kong and a few Marines, Coby and Helmeppo amongst them, came into the now destroyed room. "I do hope you have some Kairoseki with you. I doubt that that God gets up soon, but I'm not taking any chances."

"Sir? What shall we do with him?" Coby asked uncertain.

Borsalino limped past them and said: "Disable him from using those Logia Powers and drag him to a secure jail cell… oh, and let a doctor see to him. He's supposed to die only during his execution."


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

"Shishishi! I thought we would die!" Luffy laughed.

Nami hit him over the head, yelling: "WE ALMOST DID YOU IDIOT!"

While the navigator was about to choke their captain to death, the rest of the crew remained unfazed by that. "Luckily that Law Guy was there to help us out." Sanji mumbled. He puffed out some smoke and added: "And even that Marine guy joined in."

While most of the crew ignored the fact that their navigator was obviously trying to strangle their captain to death, Chopper came around to check on their injuries. Even though they did not sustain any serious injuries this time the little reindeer still made sure that his Nakama were in good health.

Smiling over both his furry cheeks Chopper exclaimed: "I think we can dare to take off the bandages. Your wounds have healed nicely."

"Finally!" Zoro said smirking, "They only restrained me."

While their little doctor took care of the few bandages he had applied, Nico Robin spotted something on the horizon. "Miss Navigator," she eventually called down, "I would appreciate it if you could let go of Captain-san."

"Not until I killed him!" Nami retorted furiously.

"We need him." Robin said smiling, "There's a Marine warship coming right towards us."

"WHAT?!"

At once their little dispute was forgotten and Nami shouted heated orders. But they could not change their course nearly as fast as they had to, and the warship was fast despite its bulk. Very soon the ship was alongside the smaller Thousand Sunny and grappling hooks came down.

"They want to board us!" Chopper, Brook and Usopp cried out in panic.

However, Luffy smirked. "Then let's board them!" Turning around he asked smiling: "How about it?"

"Yeah," Zoro said and got up, "Finally a little bit of action."

"Can as well check out their storage and check if they have some spice… or some other equipment we could need."

Nami – her slight panic was forgotten at the thought of possible booty – called out: "Okay, let's board them! Boys, get as much booty as you can carry!"

"Yes Nami-chwan" Sanji called out love-struck. "I love it when you are giving orders like a boss."

"Here speaks the Marine!" the Marine captain yelled down, "Drop your weapons and prepare to be boarded!"

"Nah!" Luffy called back and extended his arm to catapult himself onto the ship. "You don't drop your weapons while we board you!"

"Wait… WHAT?! We are the ones to board! Not you!"

Luffy did not listen and soon the most beautiful battle was raging.

-0-

It was needless to say what exactly happened on that ship. Within a few minutes the Straw Hat pirates drove the Marines into the defensive. The poor soldiers could not hold their line for very long, but their captain shouted: "Hold the line! Hold them off! They must not get the prisoner!"

Sanji – who stood a little aside – was remarkably the only of the Straw Hats that heard that. Raising his perfectly swirly eyebrow he kicked a soldier and wondered: "Prisoner?" Looking around he took a drag on his cigarette and mumbled: "This is a _war_ship, isn't it? And prisoners are usually transported with prison ships…"

The cook shrugged and said: "Must be a special prisoner then." Calmly the black-clad slim man began to move into the bowels of the ship. "Could be worth checking out."

Blackleg Sanji weaved his way through the ship's insides fast and without fail. In his earlier years he had often served aboard various ships, and he knew their insides. Chuckling he kicked a door right into the face of an attacking Marine and thought amused: "The Marimo head would get lost here hopelessly. Took him weeks to get used to the Sunny, but here he would probably disappear and not come out until he split the entire ship."

The Straw hat's cook made his way into the lowest bowels of the ship, the brig. And once he had reached that, he stopped and looked around the corner.

"Strange." Sanji thought, "Normally there's only dead weight down here, rocks or so… but why is there a locked room? And more importantly… why are there guards?"

In front of Sanji was a poorly lit hall. There - where usually only rocks were to keep the ship floating in the right position - was a door built right between the dead freight rooms. This door was sealed off with mighty chains, and in front of that stood a dozen Marines. They were unsettled about the sounds of fighting from above but remained true to their orders and did not move from the spot.

One of the soldiers looked to his companions and asked: "Whether those are the buddies of the guy in there?"

"Could be… but then again, he did lay waste to the headquarters all by himself… with no support at all."

"Interesting…" Sanji thought, now visible curious, "Their prisoner must be incredible powerful… perhaps he'll join us?"

The Marines did a jump when Sanji came around the corner, strolling casually towards them while lighting a new cigarette. "Good evening, gentlemen." he said politely.

"Halt!" one Marine shouted, "This area is off-limits! Who are you?!"

"I? I am only the ship's cook."

"Cook?" another of the Marine asked, "I never saw you in the mess."

"Oh, please forgive me." Sanji said and stepped a little into the light, so they could see him. "I'm the cook of the _other _ship."

He smirked at the sight of the now terrified soldiers. "That… that's him… Blackleg Sanji!"

"Oh no! Does that mean we are under attack of the Straw hat pirates?!"

"Hey, you guys attacked first!" the cook defended his crew, "We merely defended ourselves and are using the situation to… restock." He craned his neck to get a better look at the door. "I was wondering what you have in there… normally warships don't transport prisoners, don't they?"

"That is none of your concern, pirate!" the soldier shouted, "Get away from here or you will face the consequences!"

Sanji took another drag on his cigarette and smirked: "Actually you will be the ones facing the consequences…"

With that he jumped and attacked them. His legs and feet were his best weapons, and the only weapons he ever needed. And within half a minute he had felled the last soldier. Pouting a little Sanji asked: "Down already? I had hoped for a little more… enthusiasm, gentlemen."

Upon closer inspection of the heavy lock, Sanji realised that he'd need a key to open these chains and another to open the door. Luckily he found both keys on the guards he just defeated. With a victorious smirk he removed first the chains and then he inserted the key to open the door itself. It was a very thick wooden door, and its inner side and the inside of the rather small room were lined with Kairoseki.

But when he laid eyes on the mysterious prisoner of which everyone talked, his eyes widened and his jaw dropped open. He did not realise that the sounds of battle had already ceased, and neither did he notice that his cigarette tumbled from his mouth and fell down.

The prisoner looked back at the pirate with a similar shocked expression before he spoke bitterly: "Well… irony bites I'd say."

-0-

Robin took a look around. Every last Marine had been incapacitated, and lay unconsciously around. The ship itself had been damaged to the point of being disabled, but still intact enough to stay afloat and to be able to get to the next island. The main mast had been taken down by a monstrous slash from Zoro, leaving the ship only with its Foremast.

Right now Nami was shouting orders to search through the ship and take everything that seemed valuable with them – but especially sea charts so they could find their way in these treacherous waters. Chopper added that they should take some medical equipment as well, but leave enough for the Marines to patch themselves up a bit.

Usopp was looking around and asked: "Did anyone see Sanji?"

"The Ero cook can stay where he wants." Zoro growled, "He'll find his way back here on his own."

"Hmm… we should probably look for him in case he ran into trouble." Franky said thoughtfully. "And look for booty while we're on it."

"I'll go and look for Sanji!" Luffy volunteered, "Perhaps he's in the kitchen!"

"You are a hopeless case." Nami sighed out. "Franky, could you escort our idiot captain? We don't need him running into more trouble or getting lost."

"Will do boss-lady." the giant cyborg declared.

"Yay! Adventure!" Luffy proclaimed. "Let's go, Franky!"

Nami nodded. "Good. And the rest of you: Get looking for booty. I want everything that's valuable on the Sunny before the sun goes down."

"I would recommend working fast." Robin eventually said, "Warships like this are never alone. I bet there will be their buddies around here somewhere."

"You heard Robin!" Nami shouted. "Get to work!" Pointing at the green-haired swordsman she added: "Especially you, you lazyhead!"

Zoro only growled at her and wanted to snap something, but Nami reminded him of his horrendous high debts – they had only increased over the last few years – and so he went to work grouchy.

The Straw hat pirates were sure to find valuables here. What they did not include however, was what they would get soon, too.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

Sanji stared at the prisoner for what felt like an eternity. He saw that the man was obviously getting very irritated now, but was unable to compute the situation. The cook opened and closed his mouth several times in an attempt to say something, but he couldn't.

All he could do was to look at the weakened and scowling man sitting cross-legged and leaned against the grey Seastone wall before him. He knew him! He recognised those ridiculous clothing, the unnaturally long-drawn out earlobes and the weird hoop on his back; he would recognise this annoyed scowl everywhere. The name was on his tongue, but refused to pass over his lips.

"You are getting annoying with only that dumbfounded stare." the prisoner said eventually. "Say something or get lost."

That finally unclogged Sanji's brain. Slowly and stuttering he asked: "E…Enel?!"

-0-

Franky and Luffy made good progress. Looking down at an obviously kicked Marine the cyborg said: "Well, at least I'm sure now that our cook came through here… but why should he go towards the brig?"

"He's looking for adventure!" Luffy called happily. "Come Franky! Let's see whether he found some!"

Franky retorted that this was most possible _not_ the case, but since Luffy ignored that he followed his captain with a heavy sigh. Very soon the two found their missing cook. Sanji was still staring into the small room and they could hear a very vexed: "Go on! Laugh if you dare!"

"Hey Sanji!" Luffy called out, "Did you find something interesting?"

"Well… you could say that…"

The same vexed voice as before was even more vexed and groaned: "In my name… the rubber brat is here as well?! Urgh. That just keeps getting better and better!"

"Look for yourself." the cook said and stepped aside to allow his captain and comrade to form their own view. Franky and Luffy took a look inside. The prisoner looked now a little aghast at the huge frame that was Franky, and then back to the rubber pirate.

Luffy stared at him, blinking.

The man scowled right back.

Luffy stared.

The man scowled, but now his nose was being scrunched.

Luffy blinked.

Still not any more reaction from the man.

Luffy blinked again.

The prisoner stopped scowling and raised his eyebrow.

Luffy slowly opened his mouth…

The prisoner went back to scowling.

Luffy shut his mouth again and seemed to overstrain his simple mind.

The prisoner sighed out.

"AAAAAAHHH! IT'S YOU! THAT WEIRD EAR GUY!"

And two voices yelled at him: "DID YOU NOTICE THAT JUST NOW?!"

Franky blinked and asked: "Did you meet that guy before?"

Sanji massaged his temples and said: "Yeah. Almost three years ago, long before we got you into our crew. His name's Enel and he has Logia-type powers, electricity to be exact. He played god on a floating island and terrorized its inhabitants until Luffy defeated him." Sanji looked over Luffy's shoulder at the now visibly enraged 'god'. "But I do wonder why he's here…"

Enel stopped glaring at Luffy – who was still somewhat shocked – and glared at Sanji instead. Sanji noticed his all of his golden jewellery missing and he carried quite a few bandages on his person instead. Most of the bandages were pretty dirty, as if not having been changed for some while, and they were soiled with splotches of dried blood. His hands were bound behind his back, most likely with Seastone Handcuffs. The white bandana was gone as well, revealing a bright blonde mess of hair.

Enel was far from the once rather imposing, terrible self-proclaimed thunder god they had met on Skypiea. And still he kept that self-righteous, arrogant glare.

"AHHH ENEL!" Luffy cried out, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?!"

Enel returned to glare at the rubber boy. "What do you think I'm doing, you imbecile? Hiding here before my wife?!"

"…I didn't know you were married."

If he could have, Enel would have slapped his head. Instead he groaned in mental exhaustion. As if his wounds were not bad enough! Now there was also a throbbing headache adding to his badly treated injuries.

Sanji took pity in the now clearly on the brink of sanity standing Enel, and said: "Luffy, I think he was captured by the Marines…" Turning back to the imprisoned Logia user he asked: "…how did they manage that anyways?"

"It took a guy with nasty Light powers and one with fire… no, magma powers. I beat them up good, but they were lucky and managed to slip those blasted Seastone manacles on me." He sighed out and allowed his head to fall back against the wall: "You can imagine the rest."

"Light… and Magma?" Franky asked surprised, "You truly managed to take on _two_ Admirals?! Akainu _and_ Kizaru?!" He looked to his two comrades and stuttered: "We had problems dealing with _one_ while being in a group!" More silent now he turned to Sanji: "He's a monster! How could you beat him in the first place?"

"Luffy's rubber" Sanji explained, "He could not conduct his electricity attacks."

"GUYS!" they heard Nami shout "There's a fleet of Marine Ships coming! You better hurry!"

"Let's run then!" Franky called out. Sanji and he wanted to start towards the hallways when they noticed something: "Luffy? Are you coming, too?"

The young rubber man turned his head slightly, and he had this odd look in his eyes: "We are not leaving him here. We take Enel with us."

"WHAT?!"

-0-

Sanji could not believe his ears. "He attacked us!" he said, trying to be reasonable, "He almost killed us… heck, he almost killed Robin_ and_ kidnapped Nami!"

Luffy crossed his arms and said: "I'm not leaving Enel to those Marines either! And I can take him!"

The two Nakama stared intensely at each other, one could almost see the sparks flying between their eyes. Franky stood a little aside, lost, and not sure what to say.

Suddenly they heard Enel's trademark laughter: "YAHAHAHAHA!" They whirled back to the imprisoned thunder user in the moment he calmed down: "You want to take me, your former enemy, with you to your ship?! Are you out of your mind, Blue Sea Dwellers, or are you just stupid?"

"Both!" Luffy answered, earning another laugh from Enel.

Once he calmed down again his amusement went back to annoyance and he snarled: "You can forget that right away! Because I will not come with you willingly!"

"Oh please" Franky threw in, "It's not like you have any chance to come willingly or not! Not while you're bound with those Kairoseki cuffs."

Enel shut up then, he knew that Franky was right. It hurt him to admit, but as long as he was wearing those terrible bonds he was unable to fend off anyone. Let alone the Straw Hats.

"We take Enel with us!" Luffy said again.

"But…" Sanji began.

Franky interrupted him. "That is… a good idea in a sense…" The cook looked up with utter confusion at the huge shipwright. "I mean think about it, Sanji" Franky said, "If he is really able to take on two of the worst Marines we ever met, it is only a smart move to take him with us!" Sanji opened his mouth to retort something, but Franky simply continued to talk: "Our foes are not becoming easier, and sooner or later we will hit our limit. With this guy, we could be able to expand our limit! We can use him as some sort of… secret super weapon!"

Sanji blinked at this revelation. He had not thought about that from this side… Looking for help he locked eyes with his captain, but Luffy was simply grinning that giant, carefree grin. Finally the cook huffed out, fished for a cigarette and said: "Fine. I can see your point."

"May I have to say something in that matter?" Enel piped up again. He did not like the fact that he was obviously being degraded to a weapon now. The three looked over to the obviously angry god. "I. Do. Not. Like. You. Lot. One. Bit." he hissed, pronouncing every single word.

"Deal with it!" Luffy called out happily. Too happy for Enel's taste.

"By the way…" Sanji said, having accepted the idea somewhat, "…if we left you with those Marines, they would execute you sooner or later for attacking their bosses. And this is something what can happen to every common criminal here… And you are not a common criminal, aren't you?" Enel was visibly deflated out of a sudden. Sanji's smirk widened: "You are a god after all."

The Logia user gasped for air, but found nothing to say against that. As much as it would be a humiliation to be depended on his former enemies, being killed like some third-class thief would be far more humiliating.

Because of this he simply shouted a short: "ARGH!" and hissed: "Fine then. I'll come quietly with you."

Luffy broke out into that huge grin again and ordered Franky to take him. Sanji, however, was not absolutely sure about this. Whether this was a good idea would have to be decided later. First they had to get out of here and back to their ship before the other warships arrived.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

With a look of utter shock, incredulousness and disbelief Nami looked from her broadly-grinning captain to the still bound and injured thunder god squatting there between them and then back to her captain. Usopp reacted like her as well. Chopper was hiding behind Zoro's leg and was torn between hiding before the former tyrant and approaching him because of his obvious injuries (he _was_ harmless right now). Robin showed no emotion at all – like usual. The swordsman simply glared at their old nemesis. Sanji and Franky were not sure what to say and Brook did not understand the whole ruckus. Enel on the other hand looked in a mixture of disgust and horror at the afro-sporting skeleton.

Eventually Nami broke the tense silence. "Luffy…" she began, her voice low and slow.

"Yes Nami?" her captain asked, still grinning broadly.

Suddenly Nami shot forwards, grabbed Luffy and began to strangle and shake him once again: "WHY DID YOU BRING HIM HERE?! ENEL'S THE BAD GUY!"

"Because he got cool powers!" Luffy explained between two gasps of air.

"THAT IS NO ANSWER!" Letting go of Luffy she turned to Sanji and Franky. Both winced at her sharp snapping commanding tone: "Franky! Sanji! You should have hindered him from making mistakes!"

"Mistake?!" Enel suddenly growled irritated, tearing his gaze off the walking skeleton and glared at the red-haired woman who suddenly jumped behind the cyborg. "Did you mean me with 'mistake'?"

Before Enel went to kill Nami with his glares, Sanji decided to cut in. "We determined that Enel is by far more powerful than any of us – not counting in Luffy who is immune to his powers of course."

The God was appeased by that a bit. Franky continued: "He told us that he fought Admirals Akainu and Kizaru together – and we know to what those guys are able."

Zoro growled at that. He knew first-hand to what the Admiral Kizaru was able. And he heard from Mihawk that the other guy killed Ace in Marineford and fatally wounded Whitebeard. Suddenly it clicked in his mind. "You want to have Enel's powers in case we face them again?"

Sanji and Franky nodded. "That was pretty much our thought, too."

"I do not mean to be disrespectful," Brook suddenly said, "but there's a whole fleet of warships coming our way. And they are too close for my taste – Yohohohoho! I do not have any taste since I have no tongue!"

"Warships, hah!" Enel threw in, "Undo these manacles, and I will destroy all of them."

Luffy grinned again. "Okay!"

"No Luffy!" Usopp cried, "He's going to kill us, too! We should throw him overboard!"

"Usopp!" Chopper shouted, "Enel is injured! I have to take care of his wounds first! Then you can throw him overboard."

"…That does not make any sense."

"Oh, right…"

Luffy crossed his arms. Stubbornly he said: "I'm the captain. And I say we take Enel into our crew."

His nakama looked a little shocked at him now. Enel raised his eyebrow and muttered: "You did not speak about this before."

"Why?" Nami eventually asked. "He used to be our enemy, remember?"

"So were Robin and Franky." Luffy cut in. "Besides, the Pirate King needs to have a God in his team, doesn't he?"

"God stands above all mortals," Enel grumbled, "also above any pirate." His objection was unheard, though.

"By the way, the warships are still coming closer. They will be soon within firing range." Franky said matter-of-factly. "…How can such big ships move so fast anyways?"

Zoro turned a little and looked at the ships. They were all at least as big as the last one. No doubt that they were able to shoot the Thousand Sunny into splinters.

Then he turned his one-eyed gaze to the former god of Skypiea. "Call me mad," he finally said, "but I think using Enel as a weapon against the World Government is a justified course of action."

"What do you mean Zoro?"

"I say we free him and let him take care of those ships. Afterwards we can still decide whether to keep him around or not."

"That makes him sound like some sort of pet." Robin said chuckling. Enel scowled at that thought. Suddenly she turned to the seated god and asked: "Tell me, God-san, what do _you_ wish to achieve?"

Enel was taken back by this. But he figured he would have nothing to lose anyways, so he sighed out and said: "I want to take revenge on those Marine Admirals who dared to abase me… But I am not stupid. I know I can take them on, but I can _not_ _defeat_ them on my own."

Robin nodded to that as if she had just heard something to approve of.

Luffy jumped right in front of the sullen thunder god, with a huge grin plastered into his face. "So you want to join my crew?"

Enel growled at him. "I do not have much choice in that matter. As long as I don't have my ship I am stuck here."

"So you say yes?"

The former god scrunched his nose in disdain. He hated this damned cheerful rubber brat and his band of freaks. However, his experiences had taught him two things: First they could only defeat him in the first place because they worked together. And second he was powerful, but not powerful enough to take on the entire Marine on his own. And honestly, being the Straw Hat's secret… what did that cyborg say? Super? Anyways, being the pirate's secret super weapon sounded still better than being executed like a third-class criminal or rotting in some prison.

At least he got to kill stuff.

So Enel took a deep breath, swallowed his arrogance and pride and said: "Yes."

Luffy tilted his head and said: "But no attacking my Nakama!"

Enel growled and hissed out a: "Fine."

The others of the band held their breaths. Luffy's grin widened. "Hey Usopp! Unbind him!"

"This will not be long-lasting!" Enel warned him, "Once I had my revenge, I will go my own way, understood?"

"Sure." Luffy grinned.

Usopp looked timidly up to Luffy and then to Enel. "Is this a wise thing to do, Luffy? I know, once you made up your mind about something, it is impossible to change it…"

"And I want Enel!"

The sniper sighed. "Okay then. I'll break open the lock. But if he does anything queer, you will not hesitate to strike him down, understood?"

Luffy still grinned above both his ears. He had been able to take on Enel almost three years ago, and now he had become even stronger. Luffy could always constrain the thunder god, and this thought calmed the others a little. No matter what flaws their captain might have, he was unfailingly loyal to his friends and would even fight God and the Devil if they threatened his friends.

With a certain uneasiness Usopp kneeled down behind Enel and began to pick the lock of his Seastone cuffs.

-oo0oo-

Sometimes Captain Even Better (he was the little brother of Very Good) hated his job. Oh, he did command one out of twenty of the newest, most developed, fastest and best armed warships, but what did it mean to control such a good ship if you were at the very end of a convoy? When his men were finally within firing range of a pirate ship, all other warships would have already finished them off, after all.

And now Even Better sighed as he watched the small spot which was the Straw Hat's ship.

"Oh boy. I bet when we get there, all the pirates will have been killed already." he mumbled dryly.

Little did he know that this would be his last day as the captain of this ship.

It was already early evening, and thick storm clouds were piling up in the sky… however…

Out of a sudden the sky lit up, as if someone had shut on a giant spotlight above the clouds. It blinded all men on every ship, making them cry out in strangled fear.

Then it came.

A giant beam of blue light – or perhaps a giant lightning – shot out of the clouds with a distinctive crackling sound. The beam tore through the first ship as if it was wet paper, destroying it in an instant. There, where the beam hit the waters, the sea began to churn wildly, trashing and sending spray everywhere. The heavy stench of ozone began to draft over to him, and a concussion followed soon afterwards. The shock wave threw experienced men off their feet, throwing them about and damaging the ships on which they were.

Stunned Captain Even Better watched the work of destruction.

And before the light of the beam faded away, another beam came down from heaven, hitting and destroying the second ship. One warship after the other were hit and turned into nothing but splinters. The lightning beam tore through everything as if it was wet paper, not only through the wood.

"CAPTAIN! CAPTAIN!" one of his Marines shouted, "WHAT CAN WE DO?!"

But there was nothing that they could do. The array of powerful light beams made their way towards them, nothing could stop them in their advance. Shock waves and drafts of warm air were hitting his ship more frequently now. The remaining ships were thrown about like toys, and the wrecks of the destroyed ones were wrecked even more. Even the Thousand Sunny – the pirate ship – was thrown away by the massive waves called forth by the blasts of lightning.

"…And I thought it was bad being at the end of the convoy." Even Better said. But really, he _hated_ his job right now. "Gentlemen, let's feast on this terrible spectacle. It had been an honour to serve with you in the Marine."

"…Aye, Sir!"

Then the last ship was hit and crushed by Enel's strongest attack.

God's judgement turned out badly for the Marine warships and their commandants.

-oo0oo-

Aboard the Sunny everyone held to anything that was fixed. The ship was thrown around like a toy ball on the waves summoned by the powerful blasts. Only now did the Straw hat pirates understand just what Enel had meant when he referred to himself as 'God'…

These powers were only reserved for force of natures. And it is the force of nature which inspired humans to believe in god after all.

Enel was the only one unfazed by the terrible demonstration of his powers. Quite the contrary even.

He was laughing.

Only when the last beam disappeared and the light died down, so did his laughter. He looked over the field of destruction in satisfaction. Enel was sure that this little – admittedly slightly disproportionate – event intimidated the pirates on whose ship he was right now. They should be by now cowering before his feet and…

"THAT WAS SOOOOOOO COOOOOOOOOOL!"

Enel turned slightly in confusion. They were not cowering? Okay, the reindeer, the long nose and that skeleton were, but the rest?

Suddenly Nami grabbed him roughly by his shoulders – even though he a lot taller than her, reaching up to the Franky from two years ago – and yelled at him: "YOU PSYCHO! DON'T YOU EVER DARE TO DO THAT AGAIN!"

The thunder god blinked at her. "I may have gone over the top a little…"

"A LITTLE?! YOU CALL THAT 'A LITTLE'?!"

Okay. Perhaps this crew was a little different to most of the other Blue Sea Dwellers.

Only slowly did it dawn to Enel into what he had gotten himself.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

Enel yawned and wiped his eyes. Times like these made him wonder why he allowed it to lower himself to such levels. It had been a little over one and a half weeks ever since he 'joined' the Straw Hat pirates. And nothing had happened until now! Nothing but some rather amusing scenes – which were only sad now – and the occasional bickering, especially between that green-haired swordsman and the blonde cook. Oh, and a few sea monsters he dispatched of.

The thunder god watched the pirates play under his seating place with a mixture of boredom and annoyance. Almost two weeks and they seemed to have forgotten the fact that they had a psychopathic ex-god with them. While his threats had worked a few days, they simply ignored him when he was threatening them now. Only the sniper and the reindeer were startled by his presence, everyone else simply said: "Morning Enel." or crap like that while smiling broadly or not looking up at all.

Every time they did that he felt like banging his head into a wall and scream – but he was better than that.

However, he knew that they were only playing with him. He could sense it thanks to his incredible Mantra abilities. They were watching him closely, surveying his every action.

He chuckled. At least they were not totally careless. The pirates knew to what he was able, and that he could incapacitate or even kill most of them before they could even react. And yet…he had not done anything comparable until now.

"Why have I not yet killed them for their insolence?" Enel wondered. After all, the way they treated him was everything but suited for a god. His old servants would have been punished long ago.

A sharp, stinging pain from his flank answered that question at least. Enel looked down in disdain where a star-shaped large scar was now directly above his right hip and stretched up all the way to his lowest ribs; the very spot where that Borsalino/Kizaru guy had hit him a few weeks ago. The newly formed skin was still very tender and it was stinging like hell whenever he made a sudden or strange move or when he simply took a deep breath.

He scrunched his nose in disdain at this obvious weakness. "Oh yeah. Now I remember why I hang out with these imbeciles…"

Down below him the ruckus changed into a different type of ruckus, and he could hear heavy steps and heavy thuds. Something was being moved around. Enel did not care about that, instead he concentrated his mind on something else. "Think about it, Enel." he mentally repeated in his brain over and over again, "You are stuck here in the Blue Sea without the Ark Maxim. Long-range travel is also out of question because of all the water around. You fought against those Marine guys alone before and could not defeat them. And if you try to kill any of these annoying imbeciles, the rest of them will just beat you up again – and that hurts." Sighing out he then recapitulated the better side of his situation: "Let's see… I can travel here pretty comfortable – not befitting my rank, but comfortable. I get free food for killing off some stupid sea monsters. Wherever the pirates appear, the Marines I seek will appear, too. And as long as they see me as their crewmember they'll support me when facing said Marines."

Enel let out a heavy, deep sigh. From his present point of view it was better to stick around these pirates, because the advantages were clearly outweighing the disadvantages.

"When I find a more settled and stronger crew, I'll change over to them." he finally decided. "Until then I'm stuck here."

Loud jeering echoed from below again. Annoyed Enel took a look down and… lost almost his normally steady balance. In the sun glinted that what he loved more than a woman's company or fresh fruit.

Gold.

The Marine warship on which he had been had obviously also been a treasure transport. And now the pirates sat, kneeled and stood around a small but impressive pile of gold. Enel could hear their thoughts reeling, they were thinking about what to buy on the next island. Most prominent however, was the voice of that red-haired navigator.

Enel chuckled. "Greedy woman." he said.

But he was not any better, though. He tried not to wince when he pushed himself up. He wanted to have a share of the treasure as well. At least to replace his beloved gold staff that magma guy had destroyed.

And perhaps to spiff himself up a bit again.

-0-

Nami's eyes were shining brightly. "Look at all this gold!" she swooned, "Oh, precious gold!"

"Your eyes gleam brighter than any gold!" Sanji swooned as well. "Nami-chwan!"

"What will we do with all this gold?" Usopp asked.

"We'll pick out the most beautiful pieces we want to keep and sell the rest, of course." Robin explained smiling.

"Yay!"

While the major part of the Straw hat pirates sifted through the pile of gold, Luffy discovered something else. "There are legs poking out of there. Is there a person in that pile?"

"Yeah right," Zoro grumbled. He too picked some jewellery, but he thought to sell it to appease Nami's horrendous high debts. "a normal person would not be able to survive in there."

"I'll take a look." Luffy exclaimed grinning. With his whole inhuman strength he grabbed the legs. And with a hearty tug he freed the owner of the legs. Immediately he regretted that, because that what he had in his hands was a very ugly massive gold statue of the late actress Victoria Cindry. A souvenir from Dr. Hogback's estate.

"Oh my god." Zoro hissed out.

"Is this valuable?" Luffy asked.

"It's too ugly to be valuable." Nami threw in with an equally grossed-out face.

"Excellent! Then I can use this" Luffy and Zoro jumped when the thunderclap of Enel's entrance lightning vibrated through their whole bodies. With an overconfident smirk the god had appeared there, but his smirk faded once he saw how ugly the statue really was. "By my name!" he somehow managed to press out, "Don't you Blue Sea Dwellers have any decent artists?"

"Can someone please do something about that?" Brook asked desperately, "My eyeballs are threatening to fall out of their sockets due the ugliness… oh wait! I do not have any eyeballs! Yohohohohoho!"

"I wanted to replace my lost weapon anyways…" Enel muttered, "Can as well do that using this… thing there." In the next moment he used his electrical powers to heat and melt the gold in a way Nami and Luffy has seen before. Bolts of lightning danced around the figurine, blinding the onlookers for a moment.

When the lightning disappeared so had the ugly statue. Instead of it there was now a staff made from solid gold. Enel took it and gave it an experimental swirl, and he did it with absolute ease although the staff was even longer than him and probably just as heavy!

With a satisfied smirk Enel put the staff aside and picked up something else. Those were massive gold jewellery similar to those he had worn on Skypiea. With experienced hands he put the jewellery on again, using his ability to turn into lightning to ease the situation.

And when he then picked up his staff again and threw it lazily over his shoulder, his whole posture had changed.

The Thunder God Enel had returned.

The Straw hats were not so sure whether they liked that.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

Another two weeks had passed and the situation became slowly worse. To vent his ever increasing urge to destroy and kill Enel had begun to attack the wildlife of the sea with way too extreme attacks just for the heck of it.

Somehow that did not bother the others much, though. Quite the contrary even.

"Ah, now that's a big bugger." Sanji said grinning at the sight of a giant tuna Enel had just fried out of boredom. Smiling widely he said: "Thanks a lot, Enel. Hey Marimo! Fish that thing out of the water or there will be no dinner for you!"

"You damned Ero-cook…"

While the two bickered Enel noticed that his eyebrow was twitching. There was this urge to bang his head against the wall again. No matter what he did, those blasted Blue Sea Dwellers simply nodded it off as one of his 'spleens'.

And if something pissed Enel off more than anything was being treated as if he was an absolutely normal person. He was GOD for … well… _his _sake!

Because of that he was sitting sulking at the bow of the flashy ship and tried to ignore the carefree party a few feet away from him while he was munching an apple that evening. With a slight pang in his heart he looked up to the bright disk that hung silently in the sky. His Fairy Vearth he had been forced to leave so abruptly.

Anger boiled up inside of him then. He would make that Kizaru person pay for daring to throw him into this situation. And then he would try to find a way to return to Fairy Vearth.

Thanks to his Mantra he could sense someone's approach before he even made the first step towards him. Because of this he did not even look up when Luffy appeared, a huge chunk of fish meat in his mouth and one in each of his hands.

"Why are you sitting here alone?" Luffy asked somewhat awkward, "Come and party with us!"

"I refuse." the thunder god stated, not taking his gaze off the moon.

The rubber boy tilted his head and asked: "Why?" A naïve, childish question, but he did manage to attract Enel's attention.

"I've seen how you eat." was the slightly pitted answer after a moment of silence.

"…oh. Okay then"

Luffy turned around to rejoin his Nakama when the ex-god's voice cut through the night: "Why did you accept me to your ship?"

"Huh?"

Enel's eyes narrowed. "I almost killed you and your… Nakama in the past, I tried to destroy Sky Island and killed countless people" Hissing now he continued: "I hate your guts for stopping me then, and I know you hate me for my past deeds… so why did you accept me to your ship and crew without any further objections?!"

"Because you have awesome powers!" Enel stared at him in utter shock, unable to say or react to that.

"Oh, and I figured I could need a dancer on my crew…"

In the next moment the cheerful atmosphere over with the others was abruptly interrupted when they heard Enel's frustrated scream.

"What is going on over there?" Nami asked annoyed.

"Looks like Enel's trying to kill our captain." Zoro answered casually.

"Ah! I knew he was going to do that! Let's throw him overboard!" Usopp cried.

Sanji took a long drag on his cigarette and said: "I'm surprised Enel lasted that long and did not snap much earlier."

"Shouldn't we do something about that?" Chopper and Usopp asked terrified. "He's going to kill Luffy!"

"Nah," the other said, "let them sort that out on their own"

-0-

About four and a half minutes later the small fight was over. Enel had indeed won by using Luffy's rubber abilities against him and tied him up in a tight package with his own limbs.

Then he left him to his misery and stalked still sparking away to his usual place.

"…I would have expected him to actually kill captain-san" Robin said.

"UWAAHH! Why are you saying such things Robin?!"

"Shihshishi," Luffy laughed, "I thought I'd die! Sanji! Give me more meat!"

Sanji took a drag on his cigarette again and asked: "Shouldn't you do something about your situation first?"

"Oh, right." The rubber captain tried to wiggle … but nothing happened. "Strange…" Luffy hopped on place but found his arms tied and knotted so tightly to his feet that he could not possibly free himself on his own accord. Looking up to Usopp he asked: "Can you help me out?"

Usopp and Franky went to work right away, but even they could not undo the knots that easily. "Wow…" Franky muttered, "That guy sure knows how to disable someone."

Usopp sighed out and he turned to Luffy, asking: "Luffy, was that really a wise thing?"

Luffy blinked, "Pissing him off you mean?" He tried to wiggle again but was still unable to free himself. "Hmm… perhaps I should not have done that."

"No, I mean the whole 'let the psychopathic guy with God Complex who tried to kill us stay on our ship' thing!"

"Shishishi," Luffy chuckled, "don't worry Usopp. I think he's a great guy."

"He. Tried. To. Kill. Us." Usopp grumbled.

"But then again…" Sanji said thoughtfully, "None of us is able to defeat people that easily." He smashed his cigarette and lit a new one: "He does have the most powerful Devil Fruit ability of us all… perhaps even one of the strongest in the world…"

"That's the reason why I want to have Enel!" Luffy shouted, "The Pirate King needs the strongest of the strong! And he makes a good dancer!"

"…Dancer?"

"Well… he does move pretty similar to one when fighting…"

In the next moment a bolt of lightning sprang from the heavens and shocked the pirates closest to Luffy thoroughly. It was not really dangerous – if Enel had wanted to kill them, he would have done so. Instead they were only left with an ugly tingling sensation. A warning not to think about that while he was nearby.

"Oww… Curse that Mantra of his…"

-oo0oo-

Enel had meanwhile reached his usual resting place: the library. When he was not napping on the foremast, he retreated here, because there was no way in hell he would share the same room with the other male members of the crew – or with anyone for that matters.

"Dancer. Pah!" he muttered under his breath. "I should kill them for thinking something like that. I am god!"

And yet… like so many times over the last 3 and a half weeks he found himself wondering why in his sake he did _not_ kill them right away.

In the beginning it was probably because he was too weak after having fought the Admirals, being wounded and imprisoned and his little show there with the Marine warships. He knew then that he could not probably kill them and get away with it, and he did need someone that could take care of his injuries. And after that… yeah, why did he not dispatch of them after regaining his strength?

"Ah damn…" he cursed, "Those little robots made me soft. I am supposed to punish them, not stay with them!"

Using his mantra he reached out for the Straw Hats, listening to their thoughts. But what he heard bored him greatly that he deactivated his godly powers.

Cursing under his breath again he flopped down on one of the comfy sofas. "At this rate I won't ever be able to destroy them once and for all!"

Enel turned over to his side, glaring at the dark plush and wondered just why exactly he was not able to destroy them. Was it some sort of retarded gratitude? No damn! He was God and did not need any help!

Oh, but you did on that ship.

No I did not!

You did, and if they hadn't come around we wouldn't have this talk right now.

Shut up.

Ah, I'm right!

SHUT UP!

Someday he would get back to his Fairy Vearth, where he really belonged to… but that annoying little voice asked him again whether he was so sure about the location.

Enel shut it up by ignoring it. Like he always did.

Hoping to have silenced that annoying little voice in the back of his head for now – which was the same one that had annoyed him when he destroyed his old home and when he faced the Straw Hat brat – Enel crossed his arms and drifted off to sleep.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

Much to everyone's delight they spotted and island at the dawn of day. It had been almost a month ever since they got their new 'Nakama'. Now they could finally set foot on an island again which hopefully quenched their 'Nakama's' destructive tendencies. Being penned on a rather small ship together with a whole bunch of people over a longer time could drive even the best people crazy. Especially when said bunch of people were the Straw Hat Pirates and when said ship was moving through the catastrophic hell which was the 'New World'.

It was a rather big island, a large main land with a merchant town (complete with really _everything_ one could need after long lonely months on a small ship far away from any kind of dry land) and a smaller side island where only a big mansion was built. The town was bustling with life and several ships lay in the harbour.

"Ah, finally a place to restock." Usopp said, "I think we'll get everything we need here."

Soon the Thousand Sunny had landed there and everyone – with the exception of Brook and Franky – had left the ship.

"Have fun and good luck finding the stuff we need!" Franky called to them.

"We'll take care of the Sunny, Yohohohoho!"

"Bye guys! We'll be back in a few hours!" Nami said. Then the group began to move towards the main plaza.

On the main plaza they discovered a big fountain topped with statues of people with a – frankly put – terrible hair style. Enel raised one of his eyebrows and asked: "And I thought only Skypieans had a strange taste in style?"

"This island has to belong to some Nobles" Robin said. "They call themselves Celestial Dragons and use their status to ignore laws and put themselves above the government…" Chuckling she added: "A little like you do, God-san."

"Yeah, but other than them, I have the power to allow myself that. I am not depended on some status."

Nami turned to her comrades and said: "Okay, this is a very big town. I'd say we split up. Robin and I will go together. Zoro, you'll get hopelessly lost, so you'll go with Sanji. Chopper and Usopp are one group and Luffy goes together with Enel."

While most of them agreed, Enel growled irritated: "Since when are you giving orders? And why should I obey you? After all I am…"

Nami waved him off claiming: "Yeah, yeah, you are God. Whatever" Pointing to the now scowling thunder user she said: "You need to be watched over. And since Luffy is the only one that can take you on, he'll be the one. Luffy: Take care Enel won't do anything queer."

"Yosh!"

"Urgh."

"And Enel: You watch over Luffy." Nami huffed out and crossed her arms before continuing: "Luffy is an idiot and will go into pointless trouble when no adult is around. It is your job to keep him out of trouble, understood?!"

"Now I'm a babysitter?" He huffed out and threw his arms up in annoyance: "Wonderful!"

"Don't forget the reason why we're here. We'll meet back here in three hours." With that said, the two women disappeared into the crowd. The rest of the Straw hats disappeared as well, but not without throwing a look back to the newest member of their group.

Keeping him under check while on the Sunny was one thing, but controlling him on an island was something entirely different.

Enel looked lazily around while his 'companion' on this trip was already looking around the plaza with the enthusiasm of a small child. The Logia user was not worried about losing the hyperactive rubber brat, thanks to his Mantra he would find him pretty much everywhere. What annoyed him were the people around him.

He could hear their thoughts, hear them talking and whispering about him. But then again, Enel stuck out of the crowd like a sore thumb. His exotic appearance with the golden jewellery, fluffy orange pants, bare upper body and bare feet but especially his ears, the drum hoop on his back and the huge scar on his body attracted attention.

"Uuuuuuh!" Luffy swooned, "That looks interesting!"

Enel sighed, ignored the looks of the bystanders and followed the rubber brat through the maze of the streets.

-oo0oo-

Enel did not know what he hated most. The constant whispers of the onlookers, the fact that he was actually carrying stuff or the rubber brat in front of him? That kid was worse than a whole horde of Shandian warriors and had the mindset of a five-year old. Inwardly he wondered how in his name this brat could defeat him back on Skypiea. And how he managed to get there in the first place.

When they arrived on the main plaza, they were the first ones. Deciding to rest until they showed up, Enel and Luffy sat down on the edge of the fountain.

"…you are an idiot, you know that?" the Logia user said.

"Could be." Luffy said.

Enel sighed. "You are a strange boy. In one moment you are the biggest idiot I have ever seen. And in the next moment you are a serious, even intelligent guy…" Raising an eyebrow at the munching sounds when Luffy devoured a piece of meat he grumbled: "And you did not listen to me, did you?"

"Huh? Sorry, I was distracted."

In the next moment, however, something happened. The people on the plaza began to gasp and scrambled away, forming a lane around the fountain before falling on their knees. Enel raised his eyebrows questioning while Luffy could seemingly not compute the situation and continued munching. Guards began to swarm the place, striking down everyone that was still in the way or standing. Somehow they did not notice the two sitting on the fountain, though.

"What is the meaning of this?"

As to react to their question a carriage came their way. There were heavily armed guards in front of it, women with downcast eyes – slave women – walked timidly behind it and a few other slaves carried a gilded sedan. And in that sedan sat the most ridiculous person both had ever seen. It was a stocky – or rather obese – brown-haired young man with thick, puffy cheeks and a ridiculous quiff. He wore really strange clothing and a … fishbowl? On his head.

"What is that for a freak?" Enel wondered. Thanks to his Mantra he could hear the people whisper: "Please don't pick me…" or "Don't move…" or things like that, and it confused him even more.

"That's a World Noble." Luffy explained, being suddenly all-serious. And there was certain hatred in his voice. "They stand above the laws, and they treat everyone outside their league like shit. They buy, sell and pick people right off the street and keep them as slaves."

"Slaves, huh?" Enel asked. This seemed familiar to him.

"Hey you!" the guards shouted, "You are defiling the fountain of his Lordship, Saint Grunwald! Know your places, peasants, or feel the consequences!"

"Peasant?" Enel asked, now slightly pitted. "You don't seem to know with whom you…" Luffy held him back, though. And while the two glared at the guards – keeping them in check with it – the carriage came over.

Saint Grunwald – or rather, his son 'Saint' Oswald – looked down to the two men who dared to ignore him with disdain. One was a rather lanky young man with a straw hat, a cross-shaped scar and black hair. The other was a quite large and muscular adult with intriguing ears, a star-shaped scar and an overall exotic appearance. Pointing at said exotic man he said: "Take that one into the mansion. Kill the other."

"Yes, Saint Oswald." his men said and approached Enel and Luffy as the baggage began to move on.

The guards surrounded Enel and Luffy and pointed sharp spears at them. One especially big guard – he was a lot taller than Enel and probably thrice as broad – came closer, glaring directly at the blonde man.

"What do you want?" Luffy shouted.

"Silence!" the huge guard yelled, "You two dared to stand in the way of our Lord!" The people behind them began to gasp and whine silently. "For this you will be punished!" He turned to Enel and sneered: "Although this one had been chosen by our Lord as his new slave."

Enel's eyes widened and he began to shake with anger. "Slave?!" he snarled feral and got to his feet. When he did, lightning began to dance around his body with crackling sounds as he repeated: "Slave?!"

With one quick motion he brought his golden staff over and smashed it into the face of the huge guard. "I am no-one's slave!" he hissed enraged. "I am God, fools! And you will pay for your contempt!"

Using his terrible Devil Fruit's powers Enel electrocuted all of the guards, incapacitating all of them within moments. The huge guard tried to attack him, but Enel evaded and suddenly the index fingers of both his outstretched arms were on either side of the huge guard's head. "Vari." Enel hissed, sending out lightning between his fingers, frying the brain of the poor guard and sending him to the dirt.

He looked down at the fried guards to his feet and glared over the people in the streets, who were visible shocked right now. "Well, so much for not causing any trouble." he muttered. Luffy only smirked.

That this action did not remain hidden before the so-called 'Saint' was clear. He stopped his carriage, had it turned around and stared in utter disbelief at the sight there. "GUARDS!" he shouted, "KILL THEM BOTH!"

Of course, the next approaching guards ended up like their forerunners, namely as a smouldering heap at Enel's feet while he never took his glare off the fat Noble.

Now Oswald was pissed – and slightly afraid. "DON'T YOU KNOW WHITH WHOM YOU ARE DEALING?!" he shouted, veins popping on his neck. Enel knew that he was only screaming because he was afraid of him. "I AM ONE OF THE CELESTIAL DRAGONS! I WILL SEND THE MARINE ON YOUR SORRY ASSES AND HAVE YOU TWO ENSLAVED UNTIL ALL…"

He did not come much farther when a fist embedded itself into his face. The bubble around his head shattered and he was sent flying out of the sedan and down the street where he ended up on the cobblestone path. His slaves and remaining guards were clearly appalled now, as were everyone else there.

"You talk too much." Luffy said when he retracted his arm again. When he and Enel sat down again they watched the people around them scampering away while the Noble's men picked him up from the street and carried the slightly deformed and dazed Oswald as fast to his mansion as they could.

Nobody dared to approach the two obviously insane men on the fountain, and nobody cared about the heap of fried guards before them.

"What now?"

"We'll wait until the others come here, of course."


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

"I THOUGHT I SAID 'KEEP LUFFY OUT OF TROUBLE, ENEL'!" Nami shouted. When she and the others had arrived back at the fountain, they had discovered the pile of fried soldiers in front of them while the two looked somewhat bored. "NOW WE'LL HAVE THE MARINE ON OUR ASSES!"

"Enel started it."

"It was self-defence."

"I DO NOT CARE! YOU ATTACKED A NOBLE AND NOW THE WHOLE MARINE WILL BE AFTER US!"

"They were so anyways."

Nami gasped for air, clearly on the brink of hitting both hard over the head, but Usopp held her back. "Well in that case we should simply go to our ship and set sail again."

"This is a reasonable way of action." Robin said smiling, taking the wind out of Nami's sails. Because of this the group started back towards their ship.

"Remind me that I hit you later on." the navigator hissed to the two troublemakers.

"Sure Nami."

"Good luck trying."

But when they began to move, a young woman came towards Luffy. "E…Excuse me…" she whispered timidly, "Are you the one… that attacked Saint Oswald?"

Broadly grinning Luffy said: "Yes."

"Then you are not afraid of facing the Celestial Dragons?"

"Nope."

The woman gave a short shout of relief. "Thank God!"

"Eh… you're welcome… for whatever…"

A little confused she blinked at Enel, but caught herself. "Please! You have to free our island from this terrible clan!"

"Free?" Zoro asked, now interested as well.

"Twenty years ago – when I was still a child – 'Saint' Grunwald and his terrible spawn came here. They oppressed us all, demanding horrendous high taxes and catching and killing people right off the street!" Tears began to fall freely from her face, "My father had been killed by these bastards!" She fell to her knees: "Please! For years we have prayed for someone that does not fear to face these monsters! I beg you! Help us free this island!"

For a moment everyone was silent. But eventually Luffy broke the silence. With a huge grin on his face he simply said: "Okay."

-oo0oo-

"They did WHAT?!" Grunwald shouted. He was in the room of his son Oswald who had massive bandages in his face.

"They dared to hit me, Papa." he wailed, "And forced me to breathe the air of the commoners!"

"Outrageous!" Whirling around he glared at the chief of his soldiers: "Prepare your men! Eradicate these dirty commoners!"

"May I say something, my Lord?" the soldier said, "They are pirates."

"Whatever! Then eradicate these dirty pirates! Burn their ship and kill them! Drag their bodies out as warning for everyone!"

"Papa!" Oswald spoke again, "They have an insanely powerful Devil Fruit user with them. I want to have that man!"

"Okay. Bring that man here and kill the rest – except for women – bring them here as well!"

"Yes my Lord!" the soldiers saluted and went out.

"Should we tell them that they are the Straw Hat Pirates?" a lower soldier asked his chief.

"Better not now. Once we defeated them, we can surprise our Lord. You know how much Grunwald loves surprises."

Inside the room, however, Grunwald was ordering a slave to bring him a Den Den Mushi snail. Once he had that, he phoned someone.

"Hey, Saka, Are you in the mood of doing something violent?"

-oo0oo-

The ship of the Straw Hat pirates had a guest. The woman – she introduced herself as Sasha – had come with them to tell them everything they needed to know about these Nobles after Sanji had provided her and the other two women on their crew with fresh tea and pastries.

The pirates stood and sat around her and listened well. And what they heard only spurred their resolve. Even Nami – who was against facing the Nobles – now saw the righteous reason behind that.

"At least now I know why Eustass Kid wants to have them destroyed…" she muttered.

Luffy got up, crossed his arms and yelled: "Yosh! It's decided! We'll help Sasha! And when we have to face the whole world so be it!"

"Yeah!"

"I'll go through the hell again to save a young woman in needs!" Sanji shouted.

Luffy turned then to the tall Thunder God and glared at him. "Are you with us?"

Enel crossed his arms and smirked: "I could not care less about these people. I only want to destroy… and punish these imbeciles. I am the only God around here, and I will destroy everyone that thinks otherwise." Twirling his staff again he added: "Count me in."

"Yosh! Then we'll attack those Dragon guys!"

"Yeah!"

-oo0oo-

The town was eerily silent for a normally bustling merchant town. Even for night time. Everyone had hidden in their houses. They feared what could happen.

Just outside the town was a massive private army waiting, waiting for the pirates they were ordered to defeat.

"Sir!" one of the soldiers yelled, "There they come."

The leader of the group looked into the direction and was slightly confused and disappointed when he saw what was coming right towards them. "Only ten people?!" he shouted over to them, "From what I heard about you Straw Hat Pirates, I would have expected an army! But you are only ten!"

Luffy crossed his arms and said: "So what? We are here to drive you and your bosses off this island! And ten people are absolutely enough for that!"

The soldiers began to laugh. "Ten people want to defeat us? A thousand soldiers in service of Lord Saint Grunwald?"

"No" the green-haired swordsman said, "Not ten. One. The rest of us is gonna kick your bosses' ass and free his slaves."

"One?!" the soldier leader cried out. At first he thought that was a bad joke and thus he and his men laughed like mad, but finally they calmed down and asked: "One man shall be able to stop us?"

"One man is absolutely enough." Sanji replied. He lit a cigarette and turned to the other blonde member: "Now you may live out your destructive side. Keep them at bay so we can go into the mansion without trouble, understood?"

Enel smirked. "You have no idea what you will be missing, cook." While he remained where he was, the rest of the crew made their getaway towards the mansion.

"Stop them!" the soldier leader shouted, but Enel interrupted them.

"Do not care about them." he said, his trademark self-righteous, arrogant smirk on his face. "I am your foe, and I will defeat all of you."

"You? You want to fight single-handedly against thousand well-trained and well-equipped soldiers?! Are you insane or what?!"

Their foe leaned back and laughed. "Yahahahahaha! You should be asking that yourself! Yahahahaha!"

"Who are you that you dare to say such thing?!"

Enel's smirk only grew when he answered. Electricity danced over his flesh and his pure presence created a tingling sensation on everyone's bodies.

"I am lightning." he said.

The lightning became stronger, enshrouding his body entirely. The static he created was palpable by now, making several of the soldiers cringe.

"I am God! And I will judge you."


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

In shock, confusion, rage and fear watched the Noble Saint Grunwald and his son Oswald the impressive lightning rising a mile away from them into the sky.

"No matter how powerful that Devil Fruit user is…" Grunwald stuttered, unable to hide his apparent fear, "…he will never come past my soldiers!"

Suddenly the thick, massive wooden door of their courtyard was bashed in. When the dust settled, the Straw Hat Pirates made their move, attacking the remaining soldiers right away.

"…That did not seem to stop his friends, though." Oswald stammered.

Grunwald turned around and shouted afraid: "Secure everything! Secure me and my son! Prevent that the dirty pirates come here!"

"Yes, My Lord!"

"Even if you can't stop them – delay them until the Marine arrives!"

"Yes, My Lord!" and the soldiers ran outside, barricading this door so none of the 'dirty pirates could come to their master.

"Come on, Saka…" Grunwald mumbled, "Hurry up and save me."

-0-

Down below them was a beautiful battle raging. "Hah!" Zoro shouted as he defeated some more soldiers, "I was getting bored! Hey Luffy! Normally I don't appreciate your actions, but sometimes they can lead to something really amusing!"

"Shishishi! Glad you like it, Zoro!"

"Stop babbling and get to fighting!" Sanji shouted, "We have to help Sasha-chan and the other girls!"

In the next moment Sanji kicked down the huge, heavily ornamented front door and raced in, yelling: "I'm gonna save you, sweet, innocent girls!"

Usopp and Franky were still busy outside. The sniper shot down a few more people before he turned around were still lightning rose. Claps of thunder echoed over to them, matching the lighting attacks.

"I'm still not sure about him being part of our team." Usopp grumbled. "Really, Luffy can be such an irresponsible idiot sometimes!"

"Enel never actually attacked anyone of us until now." Franky replied, "But you are right. That guy appears nuts." Franky cringed when another, way over-powered lightning crushed into the ground a mile away. The resounding thunder shook their bones thoroughly: "Like I said. He's nuts."

Usopp sighed. "But then again, many pirates have someone with them that is nuts… come Franky, let's go inside and kick some Noble asses…" He paused and said: "At least I now know why that Kid guy loves to fight against nobles. It is kind of fun."

"Yeah, utterly juvenile, dumb-as-a-post-fun, but still fun." Franky said grinning. His grin faded, though, and he muttered: "Let's just hope we manage to get away before the Marine manages to come here."

-0-

Back before the town Enel was enjoying himself thoroughly. Finally he was able to fight to his black heart's desire.

However, during the fight he had come to realise that his Mantra did have some limits, mostly due the fact that it dulled over the years spent in an isolated environment. When facing so many foes at once, he was unable react to and concentrate on all thoughts surrounding him, so he had to give up his omnipotence and concentrate only on those directly surrounding him. While it could be a problem when his enemies should be armed with weapons capable of defeating or killing a Logia-User such as himself, right now it was not such a problem.

First, those guys were not equipped to handle Logia-Users, and second, his ability to make himself intangible messed up their attacks anyways.

His Mantra might not be perfect, but when facing one or only a few enemies, it was absolutely enough.

Another barrage of shots went right through his body, but Enel merely raised an eyebrow and sent a bolt of lightning from where the bullets came. The screams of men sounded like music to his ears right now.

This and the fact that he could endlessly vary his attacks were the reason why he simply loved fighting groups, despite the danger of his limited Mantra.

Whirling around again and evading an attack with natural agility of a – Enel cringed when he found himself using that word – _dancer, _the self-proclaimed god leashed out with his staff, injuring and knocking out some more soldiers.

He prepared to turn around and strike the person behind him, when something suddenly grabbed the heavy metal ring embedded into his shoulders. Enel actually hissed out in twinge, his own movement combined with the firm hold of whoever had dared to grab him made the ring tear uncomfortably and painfully in his flesh and bones. From time to time he did hate this kind of body piercing.

Turning his head he glared directly at the soldier leader. "Hahah!" he laughed victoriously, "I already thought so. Acting on reflex bypasses your Haki!"

"Haki?" Enel growled annoyed, "What I use can not be compared to mere Haki. It's Mantra!" He glared at the taller man and sneered: "And you know that you are right in my reach now." With that said, he turned himself into electricity and fried the obnoxious soldier. When he turned solid again, Enel made sure that the ring had not left any damages on his body behind before turning back to the remaining soldiers.

Then he noted that their motivation was dwindling, and they turned to run away, throwing away their weapons as they did.

"Yahahahahaha!" Enel laughed, "It's a little too late to run!"

In the next moment he appeared in front of the fleeing soldiers with a feral smirk. They began to scream out and Enel sneered: "Now you understand, Gentlemen. True terror comes from God and God alone!"

-0-

Luffy and his friends had meanwhile reached the slave rooms of the mansion, wrecking everything they came across. Unconscious guards littered their way as much as destroyed furniture.

The slaves jumped up when Luffy literally ran through the door and stared at them in confusion. Quickly the pirates told them what they wanted, and so they followed Nami, Robin, Usopp, Brook and Chopper outside while the rest continued on their way.

"Did… did you do all of this?" a slave woman asked astonished when they came past the defeated guards outside and crossed through the destroyed courtyard.

"Yeah" Usopp exclaimed smirking. "We are the Straw Hat Pirates!"

"Why don't you threaten us then?"

"Because we are not like the other pirates" Nami explained warmly, "We are not a murdering, plundering bunch of bastards."

Suddenly they stopped at the sight of pillars of lightning rising into the sky. "Oh yeah…" Nami added dryly, "One of us is a bastard, though."

"Listen." Robin said, "Run into the town. Our man is going to let you pass when you come across him. Do not stop and do not look back, understood?"

The slaves had tears in their eyes and nodded: "Thank God that you came!" they cried.

Suddenly there was another flash of light and a man stood there in front of them. An arrogant smirk was etched into his face when he asked: "You called?"

"Enel!" Usopp called out, "Did you dispatch of the soldiers?"

"I defeated all of them. There is not one left standing." Enel said and crossed his arms. "Although this is not the reason why I came here." Pointing his staff into the direction of the mansion he stated: "There are Marines coming, a lot of them. You should perhaps get the others out of there and prepare for battle."

"Marine?!" Usopp, Nami, Brook and Chopper shouted, "Just great! How far are they still away?"

"Far enough so we might manage to leave the island. But you'd have to hurry. And with hurry I mean as fast as you can manage."

"Okay. Enel, you go to the others and inform them about this…" Enel wanted to snap something, but Nami waved him off: "You are the fastest of us after all. We prepare the ship and leave as soon as everyone's on board."

Enel sighed out but complied anyways. He turned into lightning and raced towards the mansion while the rest ran back towards the town with the slaves in tow.

When they came across Enel's battle field, they stopped and shuddered for a moment.

"One thousand soldiers…" Chopper whispered aghast, "And he defeated all of them."

"Yup." Nami grumbled, "He definitely is a Monster… perhaps the most powerful I've ever seen."


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

Grunwald and Oswald spun around when their secure room was broken open by a furious looking boy wearing a straw hat. He was followed by a tall blonde man with black suit, a green-haired swordsman with dark green robes and an impossible clothed cyborg-giant.

"Are you the boss here?" the Straw Hat demanded to know.

"I am Saint Grunwald!" the Noble shouted, despite the fact that his knees were shaking like mad, "And I will see you punished for your crime, you filthy pirates!" Grunwald pulled out a gun and shot, but much to his and his son's horror the bullet hit the pirate captain and was flung back by his rubber body.

"That won't work on me" Luffy said grinning, "I'm a Rubber Human!"

"He's the one that hit me, Papa!" Oswald shouted.

"Yes," Luffy answered, still grinning. Suddenly his gaze turned serious and he said: "and I will do so again until you leave this island and never come back. This is the Straw Hat Pirate's island now!"

"When did you decide to put this island under our protection?"

"Just now."

"Ah, I see."

"We will never surrender!" Grunwald shouted, "This island belongs to me and me alone! You filthy pirates will never…"

A fist embedded itself into his face and Luffy began to attack the two.

Half a minute later Oswald and Grunwald were unconscious.

"Well, that was not very thrilling." Franky muttered.

"Okay. Now we beat the bad guys. What now?" Sanji asked.

"We'll party of course!"

"I'm afraid this has to wait." Enel said when he appeared in the room. "I see you already finished with them… Didn't put up much of a fight, did they?"

"They never do once one dispatched of their subordinates." Zoro said and put his swords away, "But why are you here, Enel?"

"Marine's coming." was the matter-of-factly answer. "Aaaaaaaand judging from their thoughts they are pretty close right now. You should scram."

"Good idea."

Quickly the five made their getaway from the mansion, hoping silently that they would manage to escape before the Marine sent in the Admirals – even though Enel did wait for a chance to take his revenge on them.

But right now he followed the others outside. He could always wait for a later moment.

-oo0oo-

"There's the harbour!" Nami yelled and ran a little faster. When the group of slaves and pirates had reached the town, the slaves stopped while the pirates continued running. They had to reach their ship before the Marines arrived.

But sadly they did not manage to.

"AHHHHH! It's that bear guy!" Usopp screamed.

Indeed two whole warships had emptied their content onto the harbour, and now there were hundreds of Marines and three of the Kuma-like Pacifista robots standing in front of the Thousand Sunny.

Much to their misfortune however, they were spotted. "Attention!" one of the Pacifista said, "Straw Hat Pirates detected!"

"What now?!" Nami yelled panicked when the whole bunch of Marines and the Pacifista began to move quickly towards them.

"RUN!" Robin shouted, "Our only chance right now is to meet back with the others!"

They all turned on their heels and raced back through the town, hoping, that they could last until they reached the others. Usopp even created a wall of plants between them so the Marines would be slowed down a bit.

The Straw Hats could only hope to win when they were together with the rest of their crew.

Those five which remained behind were by far the strongest after all. And they – they were sure about that – could wipe the floor with those Marines.

-oo0oo-

Much to the other's displeasure, however, three more warships had landed on the other side of the island. And in those did not only contain a few hundred Marines and five more Pacifista, but also one of the very persons Enel had sought to find. Fleet Admiral Sakazuki Akainu.

His Nakama, though, shouted that they should escape instead of trying to face all of them. Their ship would be ready and they would escape.

However, their plan was abruptly changed when Enel informed them that Nami and the others were coming right their way.

The five came to a halt just at the edge of Enel's battle field when Nami, Robin, Usopp, Chopper and Brook approached them. "They have taken the Sunny!" Robin shouted, "And they are controlling the Harbour! We can't leave this island!"

Zoro snarled at that, took off his bandana and put it around his head: "So we have to fight then."

"Alright!" Luffy shouted, "Let's get ready!"

The nine Straw Hat Pirates and Enel stood back to back and shoulder on shoulder when they watched the Marines surrounding them. There was no way they would go down without a fight.

"Enel, can you take care of the giant black cyborgs?" Sanji asked over his shoulder.

Enel took a look at the eight giant robots and said: "I can take them on, but I won't be able to use my Mantra to its full extent. Their thoughts are different to that of a human."

"Fry their insides or so. We'll cover your back and take out the rest of them… they do seem to be armed with Seastone Weapons."

For a little moment Enel was speechless. Never before had someone voluntarily decided to support him, he always had to threaten them first. His gaze softened a bit before he turned back to the robots. "Then it shall be that way."

When they heard Akainu's laughter they all turned to the Fleet Admiral. "Wonderful." he laughed, "The Straw Hat Pirates and someone that dared to attack the Marine Headquarters together. Saves us some trouble!"

"Akainu!" Luffy shouted, "I will take you down for what you did to Ace!"

"Still mourning about that bastard? He deserved absolute justice."

That took Luffy on the wrong foot and he yelled out. His Haki activated and he sent the major part of the Marines unconscious to the ground. Only the strongest remained behind. "I am your foe, Akainu!" Luffy shouted, and enraged look in his face, "And I will defeat you!"

"Try it, fool!"

Then all hell broke loose.

-oo0oo-

Enel cursed silently and sent out his judgement attack after the next Pacifista cyborg. Those things were really well made, able to withstand several of his 'El Thor' attacks before going down. Whoever made them was a genius.

To make things worse those things were equipped with lasers eerily similar to those the Kizaru guy had used against him, making these cyborgs capable of actually injuring or even killing the Logia-user. Only thanks to his literally lightning-fast reflexes and his determination Enel had not been hit really worse until now. Only a few shallow scratches on his limbs and torso from lucky shots were kept back.

At least he had destroyed six of them already. Two still remained behind, and those were not functioning the right way anymore. Enel had to grin victoriously when he reminded himself, that he almost finished with those blasted things.

Right now he had damaged their targeting systems so badly, that they were blind, attacking randomly everything around, even each other. This allowed the Logia-user a little moment of relieve.

He used it to check quickly on his allies with Mantra. They were all doing well… well, as well as one could do in this situation. The Marines were just as stubborn as the pirates were, and did not give in so easily. Luffy, however, was facing off with Akainu near the Noble's mansion… but his thoughts were dominated by the blackest emotions of mankind and pain. So the kid was in some trouble right now, despite the fact that he was using Haki to its fullest extent and landed some serious hits on the Fleet Admiral. Still, Akainu was better than the rubber brat.

Luffy would surely die or be fatally wounded if nothing happened. And Enel was the only one capable of delivering help.

Suddenly the remaining Pacifista – it had destroyed its 'comrade' - attacked again. Enel evaded and sent out another powerful El Thor to finally fry the thing's insides. Indeed the thing toppled and fell motionless to the ground.

The thunder god huffed out in relief. "That was that." he turned around to the mansion, looking over the raging battle to where massive lava attacks erupted from the ground. In between he could see something red jumping around. "Okay, I do not like that brat one bit. But I can't let him face this guy alone. Besides… he's …" Suddenly a highly condensed beam of light hit him and dug through his shoulder. The resulting shock wave threw him off his feet. He hit the ground hard and with a short, surprised and pained scream.

The Pacifista was not dead yet, and that was something Enel had not noticed. He forced himself up to his knees when the giant cyborg approached him.

"That was a bad choice, cyborg." he hissed through clenched teeth. "You should have stayed down when you had the chance!"

Before the Pacifista could fire again, a powerful El Thor – larger and stronger than anyone before, shot from the heavens and crushed into the large machine. All interfaces were fried up within moments, the inner and outer alloy began to melt partially and what was left of the organic components burnt away into ashes.

Finally the giant machine collapsed into a smouldering heap of scrap metal.

Enel had won. Heavily panting he forced himself up again, clutched the bleeding wound on his shoulder and snarled: "That is the way everything goes. Do not mess with God or you will regret it!"

Remembering Luffy Enel turned to go to him, but new voices caught his attention. "What?" he thought surprised, "Even more Marines? Just how many are there?!"

Indeed some more ships landed in the harbour and the Marines swarmed out of it. They did have some Pacifista with them, but thankfully Kizaru was not amongst the men.

Enel groaned. He was in absolutely no mood to fight them. So he bit his lips, summoned a bolt of lightning and cauterized the wound in his shoulder. It was not perfect but it would keep him from bleeding to death until that Reindeer doctor could attend to it.

Then he turned into lightning himself and shot towards the Mansion.


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

Luffy cursed only rarely, but right now he felt like cursing the whole damn world. Akainu was a powerful foe, but he was also the one responsible for Ace's death. And because of this Luffy clenched his teeth and continued to fight him.

However, the Fleet Admiral was an incredible powerful bastard. His Devil Fruit Ability combined with his inhuman strength and stamina and the use of Haki made it almost impossible for Luffy to bring him down. The rubber pirate did manage to land several really hard hits on the Fleet Admiral, but he sustained heavy burns on his hands (despite having used Haki as shield) and Akainu was almost not fazed by his attacks. Even worse, his attacks on Luffy could damage the rubber boy, and sear his skin a little even through the Haki shield.

In short: The situation became slowly worse for Luffy.

But the burning hatred for this man kept him going.

The young pirate was determined to bring the Admiral down. And if he should die doing that, so it should be that way.

Luffy would not go down to hell without Akainu in tow.

The pirate went into Gears 2 and infused his attack with as much Haki as he could when Akainu came in again. He was burning with lava, and the heat was so great that the air around him flickered like mad. Luffy knew instinctively that he could not survive this attack for long.

"This is your end, pirate!" he shouted, "I will not leave this island without presenting your smouldering corpse to Dragon!"

"I am not going down without a fight!" Luffy shouted back, ignoring the immense heat radiating from Sakazuki Akainu, "Gomu gomu no…"

"El Thor!"

Suddenly there was a huge lightning coming from somewhere next to them. Luffy and his opponent were hit unprepared, but only Akainu was thrown away into a wall which collapsed from the heavy impact. Luffy on the other hand did not sustain any damage at all, only his clothes were a little singed.

Confused at first then angry he turned over to where a half-naked exotic looking man stood. "ENEL!" he yelled, "WHY DID YOU COME HERE?!"

"To prevent you from doing something stupid, idiot." the Logia-user replied annoyed.

"THIS IS MY FIGHT!"

"Not anymore."

That took all the wind out of Luffy's sails and he watched confused the taller man closing in on him. "Luffy." he said, "This is an enemy you won't be able to defeat. Not now."

"I know! But I have to fight him for what he did to Ace and if…"

"So that is the dark emotion I saw in you…" Right, Enel was able to read minds to a certain degree. But that he was able to read emotions…

The thunder god sighed out and said: "Look at your face, Luffy. Is that really the face you want to show to your Nakama?"

Luffy stared at him in utter confusion. Never before had he seen the older man acting like that. "Do you really want to get killed only to avenge someone's death? Do you really think you'd help anybody with that approach? Or that it would change anything?"

Luffy cast his eyes down, his shaking fists fell to his sides. "Think about it." Enel said and jerked his thumb into the direction of the still ongoing battle. "If you really want to help someone, go over there and help your Nakama. I can face so many opponents at once…" There was a crash in the wall when Akainu freed himself again, "but ultimately I am more suited for facing a single opponent."

The boy widened his eyes when he finally understood: "You… you want to face Akainu instead of me?"

Enel smirked his arrogant smirk: "He will have to pay for his contempt" he stepped in front of the rubber boy to face the furious Fleet Admiral. "I'll take over from here."

"He's my enemy!"

"I have the stronger Logia Powers. I can take everything he could throw at me!" Enel retorted, "And you leave this place to support your friends, understood?!"

"Are you trying to order me around?"

"I'm not ordering you around. As a good God I decide what is best for you. Now go."

Luffy was still furious about the Fleet Admiral and his own Nakama, but he saw the determination in Enel's blue eyes. Frustrated he huffed out and growled: "Yosh! Then I'll let you handle this guy!" He then turned to run back to his friends, but Enel stopped him.

Holding out his golden staff to the rubber boy he said: "Take this with you. I don't want to have it destroyed like the last one."

"This is an order as captain!" Luffy shouted, "Kick this guy's ass really hard, and then you will come back to the Sunny, understood?"

Enel smirked again when lightning began to flash around his body. "Understood, _Captain._"

Luffy threw a last, really nasty glance over to Akainu before sprinting away. The Fleet Admiral caught himself from this little discontinuation and snarled: "Not so fast, Rubber brat!"

He shot out a fist made from lava after the fleeing pirate, but before it could reach him, Enel caught it with his bare hand. Lightning danced around it and enshrouded his limb entirely, and he did not even seem to notice the heat from the molten rocks.

With a definitely insane grin he told the Admiral: "I am your foe from now on, not he… Let's just continue where we left off last time, okay?"

Sakazuki Akainu growled at him. So his Devil Fruit powers were stronger than his own it seemed… "Very well… but this time I will kill you and bring you to absolute justice!"

"Let's see about that." Enel replied smirking, "Let's see whether your 'Absolute Justice' can keep up with my 'Godly Justice'!"

Both of them clashed then and a massive storm made from lava and lightning shot into the sky. Lightning bolts and clumps of molten rock began to rain down all around Ground Zero and Luffy had trouble evading the hot deposit.

Looking back a last time he shouted: "Do not disappoint me, Enel! I will await your return on the Sunny!"

-oo0oo-

"Watch out, Zoro!" Chopper yelled. Thankfully the big swordsman heard it and ducked before a bullet could dig itself into his body. He nodded thanks to Chopper and unleashed a massive all-around slash to send some other Marines into the dirt. By now they had realised that the Marines had gotten reinforcements.

Thankfully there were not really strong warriors. There were some Devil Fruit users with them, but they were pretty quickly dealt with. The only real problem were the few Pacifista, but thanks to the harsh training over the past few years they could be defeated easily.

Now there was only the outstanding problem of the sheer masses of soldiers they sent in. It was impossible for only eight people to hold them all back. By now every one of the eight had been injured, thankfully not really bad. But their new wounds were stinging like mad, and the loss of blood weakened them. Slowly but surely.

"Gomu Gomu no Rattling Gun!" was suddenly shouted. With pained screams the Marines were knocked back when the pirate's captain came back into play. He was injured from his previous fight with the Fleet Admiral, but otherwise fine. And he carried Enel's golden staff on his back, secured to his body with a few straps made from cloth he found in the ruins of the Mansion.

"Luffy!" Nami shouted, "Is that Enel's…?"

Her captain nodded and knocked out a few more Marines. "Let's fight our way clear. We have to reclaim the Sunny!"

"Where is he?" Sanji called over to Luffy when he kicked another Marine Captain guy into his face. Suddenly another loud crash resounded over the whole place and they saw pillars of lightning and lava rising again, thrashing against each other before falling apart once again. "Oh, okay. Found him."

"He's fighting that Akainu guy?" Usopp yelled appalled, "But wasn't he an incredible powerful guy?!"

"He is." Luffy growled darkly, remembering their meeting back at Marineford, "But so is Enel. He promised he would meet us back on the Sunny, and because of this we have to reclaim our ship."

His Nakama looked at each other for a moment, but they knew that their captain always meant what he said. So they nodded in agreement and began to clear the path towards the harbour.

They could only hope that their new Nakama managed to hold his own against one of the most feared persons on the Grand Line.

And that he managed to reach the ship in time.


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

Another maelstrom of lava and lightning crushed into the landscape, destroying the private island of the Nobles and what was left of their Mansion further before collapsing. Two distinctive human figures jumped out of that.

Enel straightened up from his crouch on a crooked pillar and wiped his mouth before glaring back to Akainu who stood several yards away. "You are strong, bastard!" he shouted over to him.

"Heh. Same goes to you." The Admiral countered, "Honestly, I have never seen anyone who could take my Magma powers without even batting an eye!"

"Yahahahaha! Now you understand what I meant with being a God!"

"God or not. You will face Absolute Justice through my hands!" He attacked again and their brutal fight continued.

Indeed any bystander would have been reduced to ashes by now. The whole small island on which the mansion had been built had been entirely changed, and a big part of it had also been hurled into the churning sea below. Lava debris and lightning rained down whenever the two opponents clashed.

It was a formidable, yet ghastly show.

Akainu was the physically stronger of the two opponents, and his Magma powers could damage great parts of the landscape and kill everything it hit. Thanks to his Haki he was also able to land direct hits on his usually intangible foe. Enel on the other hand was much weaker, but incomparable faster. His Logia powers were indeed superior to those of Akainu; since lightning burns hotter he was able to shrug off the Magma attacks with little to no damage _and_ inflict damage on the Magma guy. And thanks to his enforced Haki – his Mantra – he was capable of foreseeing and dodging an attack before it even left Akainu's hands.

In short: Despite the great differences between those two they were almost equals in this fight.

The victor would be the one with the greater stamina.

-oo0oo-

"Keep them off!" a Marine commander shouted. But it was of no use. The Straw Hat pirates broke through the line of soldiers with a little effort, completely dismantling the Marine's emplacement.

By now they had fought themselves through half the town, unconscious and injured Marines and damaged buildings littered their way. Still they had to continue through until they reached the harbour and hoped that they managed it off the island before more warships reached them.

For a small moment they stopped in their path and looked back to where their Nakama was still facing with the Fleet Admiral. Even Luffy did not doubt that anyone would probably be immediately killed when they should get into that.

Even though most of the pirates were still not sure about Enel's position towards them – he did try to kill them in the past after all – they did hope that he would manage to get out of that.

"FIRE!" another Marine shouted. Quickly everyone dodged, blocked or reflected the bullets raining down onto them before continuing their way back to their ship.

"Oni Giri!" Zoro yelled and sent the Marines flying. "This is getting ridiculous." he snarled, "Where do they take all their personal from?!"

"Stop whining, Marimo," Sanji growled and kicked a few more Marines away, "and pray that they won't send in another of those Admirals!"

"I don't pray!" Zoro grumbled, hacking and slashing his way through the rows of Marine soldiers.

"Perhaps you should begin with that." Sanji replied smirking, "After all; we do have _God_ directly on our _ship_!"

And Robin added: "Given the fact that he manages to defeat Akainu."

"He will!" Luffy shouted, "Enel promised to."

-oo0oo-

Mentally cursing Enel evaded another certainly painful hit and flipped away before Akainu could hit him again. No matter what he threw at the huge man's head, he simply shrugged it off and answered the attack. Only Enel's incredible speed and agility had saved his ass up until now while the younger Logia-user pelted him almost non-stop with the strongest attacks he could muster just to get some kind of reaction!

But he did not know how much longer he could keep on doing that. He began to tire and the wounds he sustained hampered with his moves. Oh, he had managed to land several times more hits on his foe than he struck him, but these enemy attacks were incomparable stronger than his own.

"Even stronger than those of the rubber brat back on Skypiea." Enel thought with a grimace.

He was only glad that the Magma attacks were useless against him. Electricity is unaffected by molten rocks after all, and it is also way hotter.

Still the Haki infused brutal pummelling attacks from Akainu could indeed hurt him. And since Sakazuki was physically a lot stronger – not to mention larger – these attacks were indeed really damaging to the usually intangible Logia-User.

But Enel was not the only one becoming frustrated. Sakazuki became enraged, too. At least he now understood how this guy was able to damage Kizaru to this extent.

And this constant evading was really going on his nerves. Why could this guy not fight straight forward like that Kid guy did?

However, no matter how much he hated indirect fighting, Akainu knew that time was playing into his hands. He was absolutely sure that he had managed to hit his opponent at least twice hard enough that he must've had a few broken ribs by now. And the way he was moving more careful and sluggish proved him correct.

"You must be in great pain by now, 'god'." Akainu called over to his foe. "Why don't you simply stop fighting and give up?"

"I'm not the kind of guy that simply gives up! I can still continue!"

Akainu evaded another lightning bolt that sprung from the heavens and answered with a rain of Magma fists, but his opponent simply zapped himself away. "Why are you pushing yourself? You have no ties with those pirates!"

"As a matter of fact, I do!" Enel shouted and appeared behind Akainu, using a Vari to fry him. Akainu roared out in both anger and pain, and spun around, but only hit air. "But what ties I have with them do not have to interest you, Marine!"

Sakazuki snarled and looked around, but did not find the source of the voice. He was still nearby, though. With disdain the large Admiral looked down onto himself. Even despite having turned into Magma to block most of the attacks, he had several really ugly fan-shaped burns on him. Burns! A little stronger and those attacks would be able to damage him really bad.

Luckily his opponent began to weaken. The broken ribs and constant pressure proved too much strain after all.

This fight would end soon, one way or another.

But Akainu also knew that his opponent had a strange, further developed kind of Kenbunshoku Haki which not only allowed him to evade certain attacks, but somehow enable the so-called God to actually _read_ his thoughts. This was the main reason why he had not yet managed to hit him very often, and those attacks were surprise attacks, too fast or simple reflexes…

Akainu widened his eyes. That was it!

Unbeknownst to him, Enel heard his thoughts as well and began to growl. So he had found out the limits to his Mantra… but no matter. There was no way in hell he would go down as easily as this Marine guy hoped.

Suddenly the destroyed wall at which he sat was broken away by Akainu, and Magma began to rise up all around him. Enel spun around and unleashed all of his powers, summoning a gigantic lightning blast to counter Akainu's lava. Both turned into their respective elements, while still retaining their human shapes.

"This battle will be over!" the Lava Marine shouted.

And the Thunder God answered: "So be it!"

And another explosion tore apart the tense silence on the island when Lava and Lightning crushed against each other for the last time.

-oo0oo-

Startled some of the Straw Hats turned around when the resounding thundering crash of the last attack echoed over the island. "Look at the small island!" Robin said, "It is burning."

Nami sandbagged the last Marine, wiped some sweat off her brow and said: "When two Logia-Users get onto each other's throat, you don't want to be nearby." Turning to her Nakama who were just dumping the defeated Marines off their ship, she yelled: "Cast off!"

"What about Enel?" Chopper shouted, "Luffy said we are not leaving without him!"

"We aren't" Nami assured the Reindeer-human-hybrid, "But we are preparing to leave as soon as he comes 'round. I'm not very keen on sitting here when more Marine comes over."

Quickly her crew did as she said and hauled all ropes but one inboard. The ship should not drift off as long as the last member was not on board. Most ropes around the sails were taken off, too, to enable them to set sail as soon as possible.

Luffy stood on the Thousand Sunny's figurehead – the sunflower-like lion head – and glared with crossed arms over the main island and towards the burning side island. The Mansion had been completely destroyed in the onslaught between Enel and Akainu.

"Luffy?" Zoro asked as the one-eyed swordsman approached his captain, "What shall we do next?"

"We are waiting for our Nakama!" Luffy said determined.

"And what… what if doesn't show up on time? The tide is favourable right now. But in half an hour it will change, and then we'll stuck here for another few hours." Usopp said.

"He promised he would come back. We'll wait!"

"Hahahaha!" Someone suddenly laughed. The Straw Hats gasped when suddenly a figure appeared there. He was pretty unsound and had injuries everywhere, but he was still a formidable, nearly unstoppable appearance.

Sakazuki Akainu.

"I'm afraid he will miss his ship." he laughed. In the next moment he held something up, something that immediately made them sick to their stomachs. Anger and despair welled up inside them when they recognised Enel's drum ring he always carried on his back.

The lower parts of the heavy metal ring were stained with rusty blotches. They knew it was blood.

With an ugly crunching sound the ring broke under Akainu's fiery grasp and fell destroyed to the ground. The drums gave a dull thud upon hitting the ground which echoed over the suddenly silent harbour.

Akainu had won after all.


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14**

Like in slow motion the nine pirates watched how the heavy metal ring fell from Akainu's hand. Dust and dirt was whirled up when the destroyed artefact hit the ground and the dull echoing thuds from the drums embedded into the ring sounded like explosions in the tense silence of the moment.

With blank minds and disbelieving, shocked gazes the pirates looked at the damaged ring.

"Enel…" Nami stuttered, "Wiped out like a bug…"

"AKAINU!" Luffy suddenly yelled. With all his incredible power and spurred by wrath the rubber pirate flung himself at the Marine Fleet Admiral. Guarding his body with Busoshoku Haki he slammed into the Marie with all his power, and indeed managed to push the giant man backwards.

"Urgh!" Akainu snarled, "You will pay for this!" In the same moment he unleashed a strong magma-based attack. Now he could do so again. And this time it would also bring the desired effects… only this rubber brat was even more agile than the lightning guy!

And he had something his previous opponent did not have: overwhelming wrath.

This did not only unsettle the large Fleet Admiral, but also Luffy's crewmates. But they were unable to act, because they could not stand any chance against the magma powers of their enemy. So all the others could do was watch tensely.

Now Akainu became slowly pissed. He shot out an orb of lava which turned into a giant dog head and tried to kill Luffy, but Luffy managed to jump away and knock the dog head away with Haki. Nevertheless the back of his hand got burnt. He ignored it, though, and glared at Akainu with hatred.

"You won't be able to run all the time!" Akainu growled and turned partially into lava. "I will ultimately kill you and your Nakama… like I did with your last Nakama!"

"I would not be so sure about that…" a familiar voice suddenly said. The cackling sounds of electricity became audible and behind Akainu appeared a bluish light.

Suddenly a huge fist made from pure electricity hit the unprepared Fleet Admiral, fried and hurled him away from the Thousand Sunny and Luffy and through several of the docked ships where he landed on the one furthest away from the Sunny.

"A little advice, though." Enel said as he straightened back up while in his gigantic Amaru-shape. "When you kill someone next time, make sure he stays dead."

-0-

"Enel!" Luffy shouted happily. "I knew you would manage to pull that one off!"

"I feared he killed you!" Chopper added relieved while Enel dispersed the immense electricity around him to return to his normal shape. There was a really ugly, almost wing-shaped and deep wound on his back, indicating where Akainu tore the ring out.

Sighing out Enel allowed the adrenaline rush to ebb away before answering: "He did kill me. Only he did not expect that I can revive myself as long as my body is not too damaged."

"You can revive yourself?! Cooooooooool!"

"It is really difficult and…" Suddenly there was a loud crash and an explosion set the ship ablaze. Akainu was still not defeated.

He appeared on the deck of the ship he landed on, enraged, with a bruised ego and injured. "Now I'm really pissed!"

"And you are really maddening!" Enel countered and lifted his arms: "Now disappear from my sight! GOD'S JUDGEMENT!"

Just like the day when he sunk all of the warships, he unleashed an array of heavily powered and condensed El Thor attacks onto the Fleet Admiral. Only these El Thor lightning beams were at least ten times as strong but only a fractional amount of their original size. They also appeared fast and disappeared just as fast, leaving only a smouldering hole behind.

One lightning beam hit Akainu directly, followed by seven that came down all around him. And after them… all hell broke loose. At least twenty more of these highly condensed and powerful lightning crushed down where the Fleet Admiral was. The sea thrashed wildly when the burning wreck – or better the burning splinters - of the once proud ship sank beneath the waves.

This was God's Judgement. By far Enel's most powerful attack. But also the most draining one. Even for him, who possessed a ridiculous amount of power.

Because of this he warped himself onto the Sunny where he slid down against the foremast, leaving a blood stain there from the massive wound on his back.

Luffy flung himself onto the ship as well, carrying Enel's missing ring. "You did it!" he yelled grinning, "You defeated an Admiral of the Marine!"

"Weeeh." Enel said dryly and definitely exhausted, "Can we please get out of here, _now_?"

"Oh right. Yosh! Let's set sail!"

"What about the Nobles?" Zoro asked, "What are you going to do with them?"

"They won't dare to show their faces again." Luffy said grinning. "Now, let's party!"

"I think we should take care of our injuries first."

"Oh, right… but we'll party afterwards!"

His Nakama sighed out. Their captain was really irreformable.

As for Enel… he had passed out before the ship even made it into the open sea. Blame it on the blood loss.

-oo0oo-

Back on the island the rubble from a tree was moving. Coughing and cursing Grunwald and Oswald appeared. They had somehow managed to get out of their Mansion and off their private island before it was destroyed.

"What will we do now, father?" Oswald whined miserable.

"We are still alive, son. And we are still Celestial Dragons. We'll simply have our Mansion rebuilt and those slaves and pirates punished. You'll see; we'll sooner back on our feet than you can think!"

Much to their misfortune, however, they would never come that far.

A few days after the Straw Hat pirate's departure, a certain Eustass Kid came around.

And he was more than pleased to find two Celestial Dragons without a big defensive line and without possibilities to call for help.

Needless to say that Grunwald and his ill-bred spawn did not think of that as 'pleasurable'.


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15**

It was a beautiful day for once. The Thousand Sunny floated easily over the sea and her inhabitants were all on deck and relaxed.

Nico Robin came just out of the cabin to make her way over to her folding chair, fresh newspaper in hand. While she walked she looked over her Nakama. Chopper and Luffy were playing tag or something. Zoro napped peacefully in a corner. Nami was tending to her orange trees while Sanji supported her. Franky and Usopp sat near the Foremast and tinkered with something while Enel – he wore some clothes borrowed from Zoro and was missing his drum ring - looked over their shoulders expectantly. And Brook sat on a small table and wrote some notes down.

"Nice day today, isn't it?" Robin said politely when she sat down next to the skeleton.

"Yohohoho! My skin became all pale from all the time without sun!" Brook claimed happily, "Oh, but wait, I do not have any skin!"

Robin chuckled and opened the newspaper. An article caught her eye and she read through. Something else was in the newspaper and she took it out, calling: "The new Wanted Handouts are in!" Immediately Luffy, Chopper, Nami and Sanji came over to survey the new handouts while Robin cleared her throat and began to read the article out: "Listen to this. _The Nobles of the world mourn the tragic and terrible death of two of their ranks. His Lordship Saint Grunwald and his beloved son Saint Oswald were found brutally murdered near their destroyed Mansion. The culprit is according to eyewitnesses the notorious pirate Eustass 'Captain' Kid. When you see him, do not attempt to apprehend Eustass Kid, for he is insane and dangerous. Contact your nearest Marine outpost immediately." _

"But we began that!" Luffy said pouting.

"I'm getting there, Captain-san." Robin said smiling. "_A few days before Eustass 'Captain' Kid arrived on the island, the dangerous 'Straw Hat' Monkey D. Luffy ransacked the town together with his perilous crew. They severely injured 863 Marines and 1125 private guards of the deceased Nobles, destroyed 12 Pacifista-type war cyborgs and sunk 8 warships."_

"Yay! They mentioned us!"

"_Intelligence provided that the Straw Hat Pirates have a dangerous new member with them, who is thought to be more dangerous than their captain Monkey D. Luffy and is responsible of the attack on the Marine Headquarters three months ago, single-handedly sunk 20 'Leviathan' class warships and fatally injured the Fleet Admiral Sakazuki Akainu."_

"Ah, so he did survive." Enel said bitterly, "I kind of hoped he had died… but you Blue Sea Dwellers are tough to kill, aren't you?"

"Nevertheless, Akainu won't recover from your attack that fast." Zoro said smirking, having woken up a few moments ago. "I would be highly disturbed if he did."

"FINALLY!" Sanji called out and brought his new Wanted poster up: "Finally a decent picture of me!"

"Yeah, and your bounty has increased, too!"

"Look Chopper!" Luffy said grinning: "They accepted you as full-fledged member!"

"50 Million Beli? Not bad!" Chopper answered smiling. "Yeah! I'm a real Pirate now!"

While the lot of them were celebrating a little over their new Wanted posters – they had basically new pictures and the bounties had been increased – Usopp called out: "Finished!" And held up the drum ring Enel usually carried on his back. "We repaired it!"

The Logia User took the heavy metal ring with a satisfied smirk. "Perfect."

"Are you going to wear that thing again?" Franky asked. A little quizzical he added: "…That is… what exactly?"

"Of course!" Enel answered, "It is my trademark, like Luffy's straw hat!"

"But not now!" Chopper called over to him, "That wound on your back is still not fully healed!"

Enel scrunched his nose at remembering the new wound. Back in Skypiea he had only sustained two scars during his entire life – and they had been self-inflicted. These scars were leftovers from when he tore off his own wings years ago.

But now he had been a little over three months here and had already an impressive collection of new scars. The worst were the star-shaped one above his right hip and a fresh wing-shaped one on his back where Akainu had torn the ring out of his body. Luckily they promised to be almost invisible later on due his pale skin.

Sighing he put the ring down for now. But as soon as he was recovered enough, he would place his trademark sign back where it belonged to.

Suddenly Nami shouted: "BY THE MOTHER OF GOD!"

"Hey!" Enel yelled irritated, "Leave my mother out of that!"

"What's the matter, Nami?" Luffy asked curiously.

"LOOK AT THAT!" Nami cried and hold out another Wanted Poster. It was Enel's.

And the bounty amounted to astounding 500 Million Beli. Almost as much as Ace had and more than Law, Kid or Luffy had.

Luffy called out: "WOOOOOOOOOW!" while Enel smirked arrogantly.

"So they do indeed see me as a threat – as they should!"

"But 500 Million for a single gig?!" Sanji shouted, "You have more than Luffy!"

"Perfect!"

"Maybe because you're a Logia-User?" Franky asked, "I've seen what you were able to, and that combined with your violent nature… well, we shouldn't be surprised."

"The picture and the title 'God' Enel are really befitting for me." Enel purred. Then he added: "At any rate… with a bounty of this extent I won't be able to get any peace anywhere!" the Logia-User said and crossed his arms, "So I can as well stay here."

Luffy's eyes started to glow. "So you are going to stay with us?"

"Only until I find a way to return to Fairy Vearth!"

"YEAH! Brook! Play up! We have a new Nakama!"

"Yohohohoho! You're the captain!"

"Sanji! Get meat! We'll celebrate!"

"…I am not dancing, though."


End file.
